Both Bonnie and Mrs. Flowers came over to the computer. The screen was bright green with thin, faint, dark green writing.
"Howdid you do it?" Bonnie demanded as Meredith bent to get a notebook and pen to copy down what they saw.
"I don't know. I just tweaked the color settings one last time - I'd already tried it for Power Saver, Low Battery, High Resolution, High Contrast, and every combination I could think of."
They stared at the words.
Tired of that lapis lazuli?
Want to take a vacation in Hawaii?
Sick of that same old liquid cuisine?
Come and visit Shi no Shi.
After that came an ad for the "Death of Death," a place where vampires could be cured of their cursed state and become human again. And then there was an address. Just a city road, no mention of what state, or, for that matter, what city. But it was a Clue.
"Stefan didn't mention a road address," Bonnie said.
"Maybe he didn't want to scare Elena," Meredith said grimly. "Or maybe, when he looked at the page, the address wasn't there."
Bonnie shivered. "Shi no Shi - I don't like the sound of it. And don't laugh at me," she added to Meredith defensively. "Remember what Stefan said about trusting my intuition?"
"Nobody's laughing, Bonnie. We need to get to Elena and Matt. What does your intuition tell you about that?"
"It says that we're going to get into trouble, and that Matt and Elena are in trouble already."
"Funny, because that's just what my judgment tells me."
"Are we ready, now?" Mrs. Flowers handed out flashlights.
Meredith tried hers and found it had a strong, steady beam.
"Let's do it," she said, automatically flipping off Stefan's lamp again.
Bonnie and Mrs. Flowers followed her down the stairs, out of the house, and onto the street they had run from not so long ago. Bonnie's pulse was racing, her ears ready for the slightestwhipwhip sound. But except for the beams of their flashlights, the Old Wood was completely dark and eerily silent. Not even the sound of birdsong broke the moonless night.
They plunged in, and in minutes they were lost.
Matt woke up on his side and for a moment didn't know where he was. Outdoors. Ground. Picnic? Hiking? Fell asleep?
And then he tried to move and agony flared like a geyser of flame, and he remembered everything. That bastard , torturing Elena, he thought.
Torturing Elena.
It didn't go together, not withDamon . What was it Elena had been saying to him at the end that had made him so angry?
The thought nagged at him, but it was just another unanswered question, like Stefan's note in Elena's diary.
Matt realized that he could move, if very slowly. He looked around, moving his head by careful increments until he saw Elena, lying near him like a broken doll. He hurt and he was desperately thirsty. She would feel the same way. The first thing was to get her to a hospital; the kind of muscular contractions brought on by that degree of pain could break an arm or even a leg. They were certainly strong enough to cause a sprain or dislocation. Not to mention Damon spraining her wrist.
That was what the practical, sensible part of him was thinking. But the question that kept going around in his mind still made him reel in complete astonishment.
Hehurt Elena? The way he hurt me? I don't believe it. I knew he was sick, twisted, but I never heard of him hurting the girls. And never, never Elena.Never . But me - if he treats me the way he treats Stefan, he'll kill me. I don't have a vampire's resilience.
I have to get Elena out of this before he kills me. I can't leave her alone with him.
Instinctively, somehow, he knew that Damon was still around. This was confirmed when he heard some little noise, turned his head too fast, and found himself staring at a blurred and wobbling black boot. The blur and wobble were the result of turning too quickly, but as quickly as he'd turned, he'd suddenly felt his face pressed into the dirt and pine needles on the ground of the clearing.
By The Boot. It was on his neck, grinding his face into the dirt now. Matt made a wordless sound of pure fury and grabbed at the leg above the boot with both hands, trying to get a purchase and throw Damon off. But while he could grasp the smooth leather of the boot, moving it in any direction was