"You're wrong," Elena said in her wind-chime voice.
"I'm one of the Old Ones! An Original! Do you know what that means?" Klaus turned again, addressing all of them, his unnaturally blue eyes seeming to catch some of the red glow of the fire. "I've never died. Every one of you has died, you gallery of spooks! But not me. Death can't touch me. I am invincible!"
The last word came in a shout so loud it echoed among the trees. Invincible... invincible... invincible. Bonnie heard it fading into the hungry sound of the fire.
Elena waited until the last echo had died. Then she said, very simply, "Not quite." She turned to look at the misty shapes around her. "He wants to spill more blood here."
A new voice spoke up, a hollow voice that ran like a trickle of cold water down Bonnie's spine. "There's been enough killing, I say." It was a Union soldier with a double row of buttons on his jacket.
"More than enough," said another voice, like the boom of a faraway drum. A Confederate holding a bayonet.
"It's time somebody stopped it"-an old man in home-dyed butternut cloth.
"We can't let it go on"-the drummer boy with the black holes for eyes.
"No more blood spilled!" Several voices took it up at once. "No more killing!" The cry passed from one to another, until the swell of sound was louder than the roar of the fire. "No more blood!"
"You can't touch me! You can't kill me!"
"Let's take 'im, boys!"
"You can't kill me! I'm immortal!"
The tornado swept away into the darkness beyond Bonnie's sight. Following it was a trail of ghosts like a comet's tail, shooting off into the night sky.
"Where are they taking him?" Bonnie didn't mean to say it aloud; she just blurted it out before she thought. But Elena heard.
"Where he won't do any harm," she said, and the look on her face stopped Bonnie from asking any other questions.
There was a squealing, bleating sound from the other side of the clearing. Bonnie turned and saw Tyler, in his terrible part-human, part-animal shape, on his feet. There was no need for Caroline's club. He was staring at Elena and the few remaining ghostly figures and gibbering.
"Don't let them take me! Don't let them take me too!"
Before Elena could speak, he had spun around. He regarded the fire, which was higher than his own head, for an instant, then plunged right through it, crashing into the forest beyond. Through a parting of the flames, Bonnie saw him drop to the ground, beating out flames on himself, then rise and run again. Then the fire flared up and she couldn't see anything more.
But she'd remembered something: Meredith-and Matt. Meredith was lying propped up, her head in Caroline's lap, watching. Matt was still on his back. Hurt, but not so badly hurt as Stefan.
"Elena," Bonnie said, catching the bright figure's attention, and then she simply looked at him.
The brightness came closer. Stefan didn't blink. He looked into the heart of the light and smiled. "He's been stopped now. Thanks to you."
"It was Bonnie who called us. And she couldn't have done it at the right place and the right time without you and the others."
"I tried to keep my promise."
"I know, Stefan."
Bonnie didn't like the sound of this at all. It sounded too much like a farewell-a permanent one. Her own words floated back to her: He might go to another place or-or just go out. And she didn't want Stefan to go anywhere. Surely anyone who looked that much like an angel...
"Elena," she said, "can't you-do something? Can't you help him?" Her voice was shaking.
"I can do something," she said. "But I don't know if it's the kind of help he wants." She turned back to Stefan. "Stefan, I can cure what Klaus did. Tonight I have that much Power. But I can't cure what Katherine did."
Bonnie's numbed brain struggled with this for a while. What Katherine did-but Stefan had recovered months ago from Katherine's torture in the crypt. Then she understood. What Katherine had done was make Stefan a vampire.
"It's been too long," Stefan was saying to Elena. "If you did cure it, I'd be a pile of dust."
"Yes." Elena didn't smile, just went on looking at him steadily. "Do you want my help, Stefan?"
"To go on living in this world in the shadows..." Stefan's voice was a whisper now, his green eyes distant. Bonnie wanted to shake him. Live, she thought to him, but she didn't dare say it for fear she'd make him decide just the opposite. Then she thought of something else.
"To go on trying," she said, and both of them looked at her. She looked back, chin thrust out, and saw the beginning of a smile on Elena's bright lips. Elena turned to Stefan, and that tiny hint of a smile passed to him.
"Yes," he said quietly, and then, to Elena, "I want your help."
She bent and kissed him.
Bonnie saw the brightness flow from her to Stefan, like a river of sparkling light engulfing him. It flooded over him the way the dark mist had surrounded Klaus, like a cascade of diamonds, until his entire body glowed like Elena's.
For an instant Bonnie imagined she could see the blood inside him turned molten, flowing out to each vein, each capillary, healing everything it touched. Then the glow faded to a golden aura, soaking back into Stefan's skin. His shirt was still demolished, but underneath the flesh was smooth and firm. Bonnie, feeling her own eyes wide with wonder, couldn't help reaching out to touch.
It felt just like any skin. The horrible wounds were gone.
She laughed aloud with sheer excitement, and then looked up, sobering. "Elena- there's Meredith, too-"