Destiny Rising Read Free Page A

“Except . . .” He trailed off and then started again. “Except maybe some of them we can help, right? Stefan could teach them how to be vampires who don’t hurt people. Even Damon changed, didn’t he? And Chloe . . .” His cheeks were flushed with emotion. “None of them deserved this. They didn’t know what they were getting into.”
    “No,” Meredith answered, touching Matt’s elbow lightly with one hand. “They didn’t.”
    Bonnie’d known that Matt was friends with the sweet-faced junior Chloe, but she was beginning to understand that he’d felt much more than that. How terrible to know that Meredith might have to thrust a stave through the chest of someone he was falling in love with, and how much worse to know that it was the right thing to do.
    Zander had a soft expression in his eyes, and Bonnie realized he was thinking the same thing. He took her hand, his long strong fingers wrapping around hers, and Bonnie snuggled a little closer to him.
    But as they rounded a dark bend in the tunnel, Zander suddenly let go of Bonnie and stepped protectively in front of her as Meredith raised her stave. Bonnie, a beat behind the others, didn’t see the two figures entwined against the wall until they were already breaking apart. No, not entwined like lovers, she realized, but a vampire clinging to its victim. Matt stiffened, staring at them, and let out a soft involuntary sound of surprise. There was a sudden snarl and a flash of white teeth in the darkness as the vampire, a girl no taller than Bonnie herself, pushed her victim violently away. He fell to the ground at her feet.
    Bonnie stepped around Zander, keeping a careful eye on the vampire, who was now huddled against the wall. She flinched involuntarily at the vampire’s stare, the feral, fierce look in the dark eyes fixing on her, but kept going until she could kneel down next to the victim and reach to check his pulse. It was steady, but he was bleeding pretty badly, and she took off her jacket and pressed it against his throat to staunch the blood. Her hands were shaking and she concentrated on stilling them, on doing what needed to be done. Beneath the young man’s eyelids, she could see his eyes moving rapidly back and forth, as if he was caught in a bad dream, but he stayed unconscious.
    The girl—the vampire , Bonnie reminded herself—was watching Meredith now, her body tensed to fight or run away. She cringed back as Meredith stepped closer, blocking her in. Meredith raised her stave higher, aiming it at the middle of the girl’s chest.
    “Wait,” the girl said hoarsely, holding out her hands. She looked past Meredith and seemed to see Matt for the first time. “Matt,” she said. “Help me. Please.” She was staring hard at him, visibly concentrating, and Bonnie realized with a start that the vampire was trying to use Power to make Matt do what she wanted. It wasn’t working, though—she must not be strong enough yet—and after a moment her eyes rolled back and she sagged against the wall.
    “Beth, we want to give you a chance,” Matt said to the vampire. “Do you know what happened to Ethan?”
    The girl shook her head emphatically, her long hair flying around her. Her eyes were flicking back and forth between Meredith and the tunnel behind her, and she edged sideways. Meredith followed her, moving closer, the stave pressed against the vampire’s chest.
    “We can’t just kill her,” Matt said to Meredith, a slightly desperate note in his voice. “Not if there’s another option.” Meredith snorted in disbelief and angled even closer to the vampire—Beth, Matt had called her—who bared her teeth in a silent snarl.
    “Hang on a second,” Zander said, and stepped over Beth’s victim’s unconscious body, brushing past Bonnie. Before Bonnie really understood what was happening, Zander had pulled Beth away from Meredith and pressed her against the wall of the tunnel.
    “Hey!” Meredith said indignantly, and then