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"I've been at the boarding house, with Stefan," she said slowly. "Aunt Judith, this is Stefan
Salvatore; he rents a room there. He brought me back."
"Thank you," said Aunt Judith to Stefan over Elena's head. Then, pulling back to look at Elena, she
said, "But your dress, your hair – what happened?"
"You don't know? Then Tyler didn't tell you. But then why are the police here?" Elena edged
toward Stefan instinctively, and she felt him move closer to her in protection.
"They're here because Vickie Bennett was attacked in the cemetery tonight," said Matt. He and
Bonnie and Meredith were standing behind Aunt Judith and Robert, looking relieved and a little
awkward and more than a little tired. "We found her maybe two, three hours ago, and we've been
looking for you ever since."
"Attacked?" said Elena, stunned. "Attacked by what?"
"Nobody knows," said Meredith.
"Well, now, it may be nothing to worry about," said Robert comfortingly. "The doctor said she'd had
a bad scare, and that she'd been drinking. The whole thing may have been in her imagination."
"Those scratches weren't imaginary," said Matt, polite but stubborn.
"What scratches? What are you talking about?" Elena demanded, looking from one face to another.
"I'll tell you," said Meredith, and she explained, succinctly, how she and the others had found
Vickie. "She kept saying she didn't know where you were, that she was alone with Dick when it
happened. And when we got her back here, the doctor said he couldn't find anything conclusive. She
wasn't really hurt except for the scratches, and they could have been from a cat."
"There were no other marks on her?" said Stefan sharply. It was the first time he'd spoken since
entering the house, and Elena looked at him, surprised by his tone.
"No," said Meredith. "Of course, a cat didn't tear her clothes off – but Dick might have. Oh, and her
tongue was bitten."
"What?" said Elena.
"Badly bitten, I mean. It must have bled a lot, and it hurts her to talk now."
Beside Elena, Stefan had gone very still. "Did she have any explanation for what happened?"
"She was hysterical," Matt said. "Really hysterical; she wasn't making any sense. She kept babbling
about eyes and dark mist and not being able to run – which is why the doctor thinks maybe it was
some sort of hallucination. But as far as anyone can make out, the facts are that she and Dick Carter
were in the ruined church by the cemetery at about midnight, and that something came in and attacked
her there."
Bonnie added, "It didn't attack Dick, which at least shows it had, some taste. The police found him
passed out on the church floor, and he doesn't remember a thing."
But Elena scarcely heard the last words. Something had gone terribly wrong with Stefan. She
couldn't tell how she knew it, but she knew. He had stiffened as Matt finished speaking, and now,
though he hadn't moved, she felt as if a great distance was separating them, as if she and he were on
opposite sides of a rifting, cracking floe of ice.
He said, in the terribly controlled voice she had heard before in his room, "In the church, Matt?"
"Yes, in the ruined church," Matt said.
"And you're sure she said it was midnight?"
"She couldn't be positive, but it must have been sometime around then. We found her not long after.
Why?"