"How is she?" asked Elena interestedly. "Did she remember anything?"
Bonnie tilted her head. "She seems fine. I couldn't exactly ask her what she remembered, but she didn't say anything about being dead or vampires or anything. I mean, she was always a little bit blah, you know? She did tel me she saw you downtown last weekend and you told her what color lip gloss she ought to buy."
Elena raised her eyebrows. "Real y?" She paused and went on uncertainly, "Is anybody else feeling weird about al of this? I mean, it's wonderful - don't get me wrong. But it's weird, too."
"It's confusing," Bonnie said. "I'm grateful, obviously, that al the horrible things are gone and everybody's okay. I'm thril ed to have my life back. But my father blew up at me this morning when I asked where Mary was." Mary was one of Bonnie's older sisters, the last one living at home besides Bonnie. "He thought I was trying to be funny. Apparently she moved in with her boyfriend three months ago, and you can imagine how my dad feels about that."
Meredith nodded. Bonnie's dad was the protective paternal type, and pretty old-fashioned in his attitudes toward his daughters' boyfriends. If Mary was living with her boyfriend, he must be apoplectic.
"Aunt Judith and I have been fighting - at least, I think so. But I can't find out exactly why," Elena confessed. "I can't ask, because obviously I should already know."
"Shouldn't everything be perfect now?" Bonnie said wistful y. "It seems like we've been through enough."
"I don't mind being confused, as long as we can go back to real life," Matt said earnestly.
There was a little pause, which Meredith broke, reaching for something to take them out of their somber thoughts.
"Pretty rose, Elena," she said. "Is that a gift from Stefan?"
"No, actual y," Elena said. "It was sitting on my front stoop this morning." She twirled it between her fingers. "It's not from any of the gardens on our street, though. No one has such beautiful roses." She smiled teasingly at Stefan, who tensed up once more. "It's a mystery."
"Must be from a secret admirer," Bonnie said. "Can I see?"
Elena handed it up to the front seat, and Bonnie turned the stem around careful y in her hand, looking at the blossom from al angles. "It's gorgeous," she said. "A single, perfect rose. How romantic!" She pretended to swoon, lifting the rose to her forehead. Then she flinched.
"Ouch! Ouch!"
Blood ran down her hand. Much more blood than ought to come from the prick of a thorn, Meredith noted, already reaching into her pocket for a tissue. Matt pul ed off the road.
"Bonnie - " he began.
Stefan breathed in sharply and leaned forward, his eyes widening. Meredith forgot about the tissue, fearing the sudden sight of blood had caused Stefan's vampiric nature to take over.
Then Matt gasped and Elena said sharply, "A camera, quick! Someone give me your phone!" with such a tone of command that Meredith automatical y handed Elena her phone.
As Elena pointed the camera phone at Bonnie, Meredith final y saw what had startled the others.
The dark red blood was running down Bonnie's arm, and as it ran, it had streamed into twists and curves from her wrist to her elbow. The trickles of blood spel ed out a name over and over. The same name that had been haunting Meredith for months.
Chapter 7
"Who's Celia?" Bonnie said indignantly, as soon as they'd wiped off the blood. She'd put the rose down careful y in the middle of the front seat, between her and Matt, and they were al very consciously not touching it. Pretty as it was, it looked more sinister than beautiful now, Stefan thought grimly.
"Celia Connor," Meredith said sharply. "Dr. Celia Connor. You saw her in a vision once, Bonnie. The forensic anthropologist."
"The one who's working with Alaric?" Bonnie said. "But why would her name show up in blood on my arm? In blood."
"That's what I'd like to know," Meredith said, frowning.
"It could be some kind of warning," Elena proposed. "We don't know enough yet. We'l go to the station, we'l meet Alaric and Celia, and then..."
"Then?" prompted Meredith, meeting Elena's cool blue eyes.
"Then we'l do whatever we have to do," Elena said. "As usual."
Bonnie was stil complaining when they got to the train station.
Patience, Stefan reminded himself. Usual y he enjoyed Bonnie's company, but right now, his body craving the human blood he'd become accustomed to, he felt... off. He rubbed his aching jaw.
"I'd real y hoped we'd get at least a couple days of everything being normal," Bonnie moaned for what seemed like the thousandth time.
"Life's not fair, Bonnie," Matt said gloomily. Stefan glanced at him in surprise - Matt was usual y the first to leap in and try to cheer up the girls - but the tal blond was leaning against the closed ticket booth, his shoulders drooping, his hands tucked into his pockets. Matt met Stefan's gaze. "It's al starting up again, isn't it?"
Stefan shook his head and glanced around the station. "I don't know what's going on," he said. "But we al need to be vigilant until we can figure it out."
"Oh, that's comforting," Meredith muttered, her gray eyes alertly scanning the platform.
Stefan folded his arms across his chest and shifted closer to Elena and Bonnie. Al his senses, normal and paranormal, were on ful alert. He reached out with his Power, trying to sense any supernatural consciousnesses near them, but felt nothing new or alarming, just the calm background buzz of ordinary humans going about their everyday business.
It was impossible to stop worrying, though. Stefan had seen many things in his five hundred years of existence: vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, angels, witches, al sorts of beings who preyed on or influenced humans in ways most people could never even imagine. And, as a vampire, he knew a lot about blood. More than he had cared to admit.
He'd seen Meredith's eyes flick toward him with suspicion when Bonnie began to bleed. She was right to be wary of him: How could they trust him when his basic nature was to kil them?
Blood was the essence of life; it was what kept a vampire going centuries after his natural life span should have ended. Blood was the central ingredient in many spel s both benevolent and wicked. Blood had Powers of its own, Powers that were difficult and dangerous to harness. But Stefan had never seen blood behave in the way it had on Bonnie's arm today.