"what are you doing?" elena asked, pressing a hand against her aching scalp as she twisted around in the driver's seat to get a better look. the vampire was young, looked younger than she was. he writhed and growled as damon shoved his face down against the seat and hit him hard between the shoulder blades. finally, he grew still, trapped beneath damon and panting hard. his dark eyes were fixed on elena, his face distorted with hatred and fury. he bared his teeth at her, his canines long and sharp. if he managed to get loose...

it must be one of jack's synthetic vampires, she realized, because his aura seemed just like a human's.

"i can tell now," damon said breathlessly, picking up on her curiosity. "there's a touch of something wrong about them. i don't know what exactly. it's like a chemical taint." the vampire bucked under him and damon hit him on the back of the head, forcing out a grunt of pain. "he was lurking outside our building. he thought he could get to us."

elena's stomach lurched.

picking up on her fear, damon wrapped a hand around the younger vampire's throat, squeezing. see how much stronger i am than he is, his face seemed to say. i'll protect us.

"don't kill him in my car, damon," elena objected, her eyes drawn back to the young vampire's furious face.

"i can't kill him, i don't know how," damon said, but he was grinning. the vampire growled, the sound muffled against the backseat, and damon smacked him lightly on the back of the head, his other hand still tight around his throat. "i'm going to do some research. where can we keep him?"

"not the apartment, that won't hold him," elena said quickly. "let me think."

"somewhere no one will overhear," damon said. "somewhere we can keep him under control."

elena started the engine and pulled out on the highway, heading for campus. "my old dorm. it'll be empty for a few more weeks, and there are storage rooms, like cages, in the basement." damon looked doubtful, and she added quickly, "they're strong. and no one will hear him down there."

"excellent," damon said, and elena felt another flare of excitement from him. "there's something i want to try."

chapter 9

meredith dug her nails into the palms of her hands and tried not to breathe. the vampire-the young vampire, he looked like a high school kid-was watching her, leaning against the bars of his cage. beneath his shaggy black bangs, his dark eyes shone with hate as he looked at the group staring at him. both of his wrists were chained to the steel bars of one of the dorm's basement storage cages, and he twisted his wrists against them unceasingly, testing the handcuffs for weakness. damon must have found a way to weaken him, so the chains were enough to hold him.

damon tapped the bars between them, poking at the vampire's face, and the kid lunged, snapping at him with sharp teeth. damon pulled his hand back with a laugh. "you see, he's fast, but no faster than i am," he explained. meredith, alaric, bonnie, matt, jasmine, and elena had all gathered to see damon's latest development. "i wanted to show him to you all, because i want your help in figuring out how jack made him, and how to kill him."

the trapped vampire was growling, softly but steadily, like a savage animal. the sound grated on meredith's nerves, and when alaric's hand brushed against her arm, she jerked away.

"are you okay?" he asked her quietly, and she nodded, not looking at him.

"i'm fine." she had to keep her distance from alaric. she felt sick, thinking about it, but she could still smell the tantalizing, salty scent of his blood.

"it's so creepy, the way he's just staring at us," bonnie said. her small face was wrinkled with disgust, and she clung to zander's arm. with a jolt, meredith realized she was the only one who could hear the vampire's growling.

meredith felt dizzy. she was just like this kid huddled against the bars. what would elena say if she knew what meredith was now? or bonnie? would they want to chain her up the same way?

damon knew about her, but damon was practical: he thought meredith was his best route to finding jack. not to mention that he'd given his word, and meredith knew that once he gave it, damon never broke his word. besides, she'd find a cure before anyone else found out the truth, she promised herself, stuffing her hands into her pockets so no one could see them shake.

behind her, jasmine pressed her back against the wall, as far from the imprisoned vampire as she could get. she was holding tightly to matt's hand, and meredith could hear her quick, panicked little breaths. this was jasmine's first face-to-face encounter with an unfriendly vampire, meredith realized. matt was stroking her hair with his other hand, comforting, his attention on jasmine. the vampire thrashed and kicked, straining against his bonds, the handcuffs clanging against the bars of his cage, and jasmine yelped, burying her face in matt's shoulder.

"let me try something," damon said, and picked up a stake from the floor. the vampire in the cage stopped twisting at his handcuffs and stood very still, his eyes narrowed.

"we know that won't kill him," elena said, her voice even. she and damon glanced at each other, clearly in perfect accord. they were strangely alike, meredith thought.

"it'll hurt, though," damon said cheerfully. turning, he slammed the stake between the bars and into the vampire's chest. the kid gasped, a long rattling breath, and his eyes flew wide open. damon pulled the stake out. a bright bubble of blood swelled out of the wound and trickled down the vampire's chest, but meredith could already see the hole closing up, leaving the vampire's chest unmarked.

"you see how quickly he heals," damon told them.

meredith flinched. the kid probably hadn't asked for this to happen to him, either. that was true of most vampires, she supposed. they'd all been victims once. it wasn't something she'd worried about, until now.

she pulled her hand from her pocket and rubbed at her forehead. it was too much-the noise and the smells of her friends' blood, all of them crowded together down here-and she was so hungry. she hadn't had any blood since that shameful night damon had found her.

"want to tell us where jack's hiding?" damon said, his voice friendly. meredith glanced between damon and elena. elena was nibbling on her lip, her eyes bright. this was about stefan, of course. it wasn't just a vampire hunt. if they couldn't take vengeance on jack directly, torturing one of his creations would help.

the vampire bared his teeth at damon. "i don't need to tell you," he said. he sounded sulky, like the human teenager he had been probably only a month or two before. "jack'll find you, and then you'll be sorry. i hope he lets me help kill you."

"wrong answer." damon shoved the stake through his chest again, and the kid screamed, a high shrill sound. meredith shuddered.

when damon pulled the stake out with a sickening squelch, the kid hung against the bars for a moment, panting, before the sullen expression settled back on his face. "he'll get me out," he muttered, and his eyes fixed on meredith's. frozen to the spot, she met his gaze. did he know what she was?

damon grinned, an angry, deadly grin, and gripped the stake again.

alaric coughed. "instructive as this is," he said dryly, "weren't we going to discuss our plans?"

"right." damon loosened his grip on the stake and turned away from the young vampire.

in that second, the vampire lunged at him with teeth and clawed fingers, reaching through the bars between them, moving so fast meredith's eyes could barely follow. without thinking, she charged forward, shoving the kid away, her hands slamming against the bars of his cage.

"thank you." damon stepped back, rubbing at his neck. he glanced at the trapped vampire, his eyes sharp. "we'll talk about this later," he said, his tone threatening. the kid hadn't been able to reach far, bound as he was, but there were bloody scrapes across the side of damon's throat.

relief loosened meredith's chest, and she took a deep breath. when it had come down to it, she was still on the right side. all this hunger she was feeling, the way all her friends, except damon, smelled like food, was just a technicality. she was going to be fine.

"damon found this vampire outside our building," elena told them all. "we have to assume it means that jack knows that damon's living there and will send more vampires after him. he's on jack's list, and we all know how far jack will go to... eliminate his enemies." she sounded businesslike, but meredith could hear the undercurrent of fear in her voice. elena couldn't handle losing anyone else.

"so we need to step up our game," bonnie said cheerfully. "i'll pull out all the tracking spells i can think of and make some more protection charms for all of us. zander and the pack can-"

"uh." zander broke in, looking uncomfortable. "we've got a lot of official pack business going on right now. i mean, i'll do whatever i can, but i don't think you can count on the whole pack."

"but..." bonnie looked confused.

zander shifted from one foot to the other, his white-blond hair falling into his eyes. "we'll patrol like we usually do, i just don't know how much else the guys are up for." he wasn't looking at bonnie, or at any of them.

meredith frowned. zander was acting peculiar. then she caught a full whiff of zander's scent as he moved and couldn't think of anything else. his blood would be strong and wild, she knew, and she couldn't help imagining how an alpha werewolf might taste. her teeth ached, and she stepped back away from him. clearly, she wasn't fine yet. she had to fix this.

damon's eyes met hers for a moment, and she was surprised by the sympathy in his gaze.

"okay," elena said briskly. "bonnie, that sounds great, and zander, just have the pack do what they can." zander nodded. bonnie was still staring at him, her lips slightly parted.

"you and i will work on this fellow," damon said to elena, with a vicious glance at the trapped vampire, who snarled back at him. "if we can't get information on jack out of him, maybe we'll be able to figure out how to kill him."

"if i can get some of his blood, i can analyze it at the hospital to see how jack is making his vampires," jasmine offered shyly. "maybe matt can help me."

"and i'd like to try to track down jack's history," alaric added. "the more we learn about who he was before he became a vampire, the better we'll be able to fight him."

from behind alaric, damon caught meredith's eye and cocked an eyebrow at her. they'd already discussed meredith's next step.

"i want to head down to atlanta for a while, talk to darlene and the other hunters who were working with jack," she said, slipping easily into the lie they'd decided on. "they've got to know something they haven't told us, something that will help us track him."

alaric took a half step toward her, his mouth opening in a question. of course he was surprised-she hadn't discussed this with him at all.

"it's important," she said, begging him with her eyes to understand. alaric bit his lip, and then his face softened. he knew how she had admired jack, back when she thought he was a hunter, and meredith could see him deciding that this would be good for her.

"okay," he said. "don't be gone long, though. we should all be sticking together right now."

elena frowned. "you're probably the best one to figure out how to kill this vampire."

damon put a hand on elena's shoulder, and she leaned toward him. "i can handle the fake vampire," he said smoothly. "meredith should do what she has to do."

it would be good to get away, meredith thought. she had to get away before she hurt the people she loved.

she couldn't live like this. jack must know something. there had to be a way to undo what he had done to her. all she had to do was make him trust her.

meredith left the next day, amid a flurry of a send-off. she kissed alaric, hugged elena and bonnie and the others. damon hung back, watching her with sharp, half-amused eyes. meredith promised to touch base often, told them she'd let them know when she got to atlanta. the whole time she concentrated on not breathing, to avoid catching anyone's scent, and managed to keep herself from sinking her teeth into anyone's throat.

once she had driven a few miles away from home, meredith pulled onto the shoulder to take a breath and let herself think.