"Is it weird that I find that voice sexy?" Bonnie asked Meredith.
Meredith, striding along ahead of them, looked back to raise an expressive eyebrow at Bonnie. "Yes," she said simply. "Very weird."
A long, drawn-out howl echoed from the direction of the hills just outside of campus and Zander cocked his head, listening. "The guys haven't found anything," he said. "They're heading out to get some pizza once Camden changes back."
"Do you want to meet up with them?" Bonnie asked.
Zander pulled her closer, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Not unless you do," he said. "I thought maybe we could hang out in my room, watch a movie or something."
"Passing up food, Zander?" a dry voice said behind them. "It must be true love." Meredith whipped around, and Bonnie knew she was kicking herself for not sensing the girl coming up to them.
"Hi, Shay," Bonnie said resignedly. "Meredith, meet Zander's old friend Shay." Werewolf, she mouthed to Meredith when she was sure Shay wasn't looking.
"I hope you don't mind me catching up with you," Shay said, falling into step with them on Zander's other side. "Spencer told me you'd be patrolling over here."
"The more the merrier," Bonnie told her, very consciously not gritting her teeth.
"I'd love to get some fighting in," Shay said, rolling her shoulders. "Feels like I've been doing nothing but sitting around since I got here. Zander could tell you how restless we get when we're cooped up."
"Yeah, I've noticed," Bonnie said. Zander had sped up his pace to match Shay's quicker one, and his arm dropped from Bonnie's shoulders. She took his hand again, but found herself having to hurry to keep up.
Meredith hesitated, glancing between them, and was just opening her mouth to say something to Shay when Shay suddenly stopped.
"Hear that?" she said, and Zander, Meredith, and Bonnie all stopped and listened, too.
Bonnie didn't hear anything, but Zander smiled and nudged Shay with one elbow. "White-tailed deer on the ridge," he said.
They shared a private smile.
"What are you guys talking about?" Bonnie asked.
Shay turned to Bonnie. "The High Wolf Council divides us into Packs-to-be when we're children, and we grow up playing together. When Zander and I and the others were about fifteen, our Pack spent a week roaming the mountains near where we grew up." She grinned at Zander, and Bonnie tensed at the intimacy that was clear between them.
"Anyway," Shay went on, "on this trip, after we'd been out running with the Pack all night, Zander and I went to drink from a pond tucked away in the pinewoods. We found deer there, and we could have killed one of them easily - we were wolves right then, and it's natural for us to hunt in that form - but they just looked at us, the sun coming up behind them. And" - she shrugged - "they were beautiful. It was like that moment was just for us." She smiled, and for once, it didn't seem like she was trying to needle Bonnie. Shay was just remembering. She tipped her face into the breeze. "Smell that?" she asked Zander.
Bonnie didn't smell anything, but Zander sniffed the breeze and shot Shay another nostalgic smile. "Pine," he said. Shay grinned back, her nose crinkling.
After a moment, Meredith cleared her throat and they started walking again, scanning the area for trouble, and Zander squeezed Bonnie's hand. "So," he said. "Movie?"
"Sure," Bonnie said, distracted. She couldn't help seeing the similarities in Zander's and Shay's movements and how, even when Zander was talking to her, he had one ear cocked for faraway sounds Bonnie would never be able to hear. There was a distance between Bonnie and Zander, she thought, that they might never be able to cross.
Maybe Bonnie would never belong in Zander's world. Not like Shay.
Chapter 14
Elena turned over restlessly in her bed, the sheet wrapping around her, and flipped her pillow over so that she could rest her cheek on the cooler side. Across the room, Meredith muttered something in her sleep and then quieted.
Elena was exhausted, but she couldn't sleep. It had taken so long to maneuver the guy the vampire had attacked from the woods back to his dorm, and longer still for Stefan to Influence him to forget what had happened. And they didn't know if Stefan's Power had entirely worked on the guy: Stefan's animal-blood diet kept his Power from being as strong as that of other vampires his age who fed on humans.
It wasn't that worry, though, keeping Elena awake now. She couldn't sleep because she couldn't shake the sense she'd had in the woods, of something dark and evil pulling at her, her Power trying to lead her somewhere.
If anything, that sense was stronger now. Something insistent tugged at the center of her, telling her now and hurry.
Elena sat up in bed. The Power inside her wanted her to go out after the wrong that was out there, wanted her to make things right. She had to - there was no question about it.
She glanced over at Meredith's and Bonnie's beds. Meredith lay on her back, one slim arm thrown across her eyes, while Bonnie was curled up tightly on one side, a hand tucked under her cheek, looking impossibly young.
They would want her to wake them, to take them with her.
She discarded the idea almost immediately. She thought of Stefan, a few floors above, probably reading or sitting on his balcony watching the stars, but she reluctantly pushed away the idea of calling to him, too. Whatever was out there, her Power was telling her it was just for her. She trusted her Power: Andres had told her that her skills would unlock as she needed them. Her Power would keep her safe.
Elena slipped out of bed, careful to move so quietly that even Meredith wouldn't wake, and pulled on jeans and a sweater. Picking up her boots to put on in the hall, she tiptoed out the door.