"That's the whole problem," Matt said, turning red again. "I mean, it's pretty difficult.... If she had been some other girl, that I was going on a date with - not that I go out with other girls on dates..." he added hastily, glancing at Elena.
"But youshould be going out on dates," Elena said firmly. "Matt, I don't want eternal fidelity from you - there's nothing I'd like better than to see you dating a nice girl." As if by accident, her gaze wandered over to Bonnie, who was now trying to crunch celery very quietly and neatly.
"Stefan, you're the only one who can tell us what to do," Elena said, turning to him.
Stefan was frowning. "I don't know. With only two girls, it's pretty hard to draw any conclusions."
"So we're going to wait and see what Caroline - or Tami - does next?" Meredith asked.
"Not just wait," Stefan said. "We've got to find out more about it. You guys can keep an eye on Caroline and Tamra Bryce, and I can do some research on it."
"Damn!" Elena said, hitting the ground with one fist. "I can almost - " She stopped suddenly and looked at her friends. Bonnie had dropped her celery, gasping, and Matt had choked on his Coke, going into a coughing fit. Even Meredith and Stefan were staring at her. "What?" she said blankly.
Meredith recovered first. "It's just that yesterday you were - well, very young angels don't swear."
"Just because I died a couple of times, it means I have to say ¡®darn' for the rest of my life?" Elena shook her head. "Not. I'm me and I'm going to stay me - whoever I am."
"Good," said Stefan, leaning over to kiss the top of her head. Matt looked away and Elena gave Stefan an almost dismissive pat, but thinking,I love you forever , and knowing that he would pick it up even if she couldn't hear his thought in return. In fact she found shecould pick up his general response to it, a warm rose color seemed to hang around him.
Was this what Bonnie saw and called an aura? She realized that most of the day she'd seen him with a light, cool, emerald sort of shadowing around him - if shadows could be light. And the green was returning now as the pink faded away.
Immediately she glanced over the rest of the picnickers. Bonnie was surrounded by a roselike color, shading to the palest of pinks. Meredith was a deep and profound violet. Matt was a strong clear blue.
It reminded her that up until yesterday - only yesterday? - she'd seen so many things that no one else could see. Including something that had scared her silly.
What had itbeen ? She was getting flashes of images - little details that were scary enough by themselves. It could be as small as a fingernail or as large as an arm. Bark-like texture, at least on the body. Insect-like antennae, but far too many of them, and moving like whips, faster than any insect ever moved them. She had the general crawly feeling she got whenever she thought about insects. It was a bug, then. But a bug built on a different body plan than any insect she knew of. It was more like a leech in that respect, or a squid. It had a completely circular mouth, with sharp teeth all around, and far too many tentacles that looked like thick vines whipping around in back.
It could attach itself to a person, she thought. But she had a terrible feeling that it could do more.
It could turn transparent and pull itself inside you and you would feel no more than a pinprick.
Andthen what would happen?
Elena turned to Bonnie. "Do you think that if I show you what something looks like, you could recognize it again? Not with your eyes, but with your psychic senses?"
"I guess it depends on what the ¡®something' is," Bonnie answered cautiously.
Elena glanced over at Stefan, who gave her briefest of nods.
"Then shut your eyes," she said.
Bonnie did so, and Elena put her fingertips on Bonnie's temples, with her thumbs gently brushing Bonnie's eyelashes. Trying to activate her White Powers - something that had been so easy before today - was like striking two rocks together to make a fire and hoping one was flint. Finally she felt a small spark, and Bonnie jerked backward.
Bonnie's eyes snapped open."What was that?" she gasped. She was breathing hard.
"That's what I saw - yesterday."
"Where?"
Elena said slowly, "Inside Damon."
"But what does it mean? Was he controlling it? Or...or..." Bonnie stopped and her eyes widened.
Elena finished the sentence for her. "Was it controlling him? I don't know. But here's one thing I do know, almost for certain. When he ignored your Calling, Bonnie, he was being influenced by the malach."
"The question is,if not Damon , who was controlling it?" Stefan said, standing up again restlessly. "I picked that up, and the kind of creature Elena showed you - it's not something with a mind of its own. It needs an outside brain to control it."
"Like another vampire?" Meredith asked quietly.
Stefan shrugged. "Vampires usually just ignore them, because vampires can get what they want without them. It would have to be a very strong mind to get a malach like that to possess a vampire. Strong - and evil."
"Those," Damon said with biting grammatical precision, from where he was sitting on a high limb of an oak, "are they. My younger brother and his...associates."
"Marvelous," murmured Shinichi. He had draped himself even more gracefully and languidly against the oak than Damon had. It had become an unspoken contest. Shinichi's golden eyes had flared once or twice - Damon had seen it - upon seeing Elena and at the mention of Tami.
"Don't even try to tell me you're not involved with those rowdy girls," Damon added dryly. "From Caroline to Tamra and onward, that's the idea, isn't it?"