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She could feel her eyes rolling back into her head and her mouth filled with a asped and Matt shushed her quickly

Then it was like Bonnie was speeding through the night sky above Dalcrest, the wind rushing through her hair She hovered over the ca the pull toward Pruitt House, her old dorm, where she knew the captive vaht firmly Someone else Further back

There was an immediate jerk at her consciousness, but weak and in more than one direction, scattered The other vampires Jack made, she realized There were a lot of theain, ht it was hopeless Her consciousness hovered uncertainly, and then started to slide backward She could see herself fro fro She was falling back into her body No! she shrieked silently, trying to pull away

There was a sudden tug so faster, feeling light and buoyant She zoo fields, and felt herself slow as she reached the stretch of woods on the other side of ca--so her toward it The sensation was stronger than what she had gotten from the vampires in the woods and somehow felt older and darker than the pull toward Dae was becoure in a small room Some kind of little house deep in the woods behind the calimpsed the bell tower of the Dalcrest chapel

Satisfied, Bonnie let her concentration slip Ih blackness, feeling like she was falling, and then her vision cleared Through the s herbs, thin and wavery now, the candles sputtered Her friends were all watching her

Bonnie cleared her throat, her mouth dry "I knohere the vampire is," she said "And it’s close"

Chapter 14

As they walked through the woods, Elena sent her Power questing out around her, trying to find so Beside her, Bonnie ly sure of their direction The others followed, Alarica stake and Matt a long hunter’s stave The sun was rising over the trees and the birds sang loudly, waking up around them

Matt cleared his throat "I really think we should have waited for Da out here" He sounded nervous, and Elena didn’t blame him But they knehere the vampire who’d provided the blood for Jack was, and Elena couldn’t just sit back and let this chance slip away It had been hard enough to wait for daylight They weren’t total idiots--they weren’t going to go after a traditional vah, Elena had felt anxious and jittery, ready to burst out of her skin If she had been just a few ht Siobhan, could have saved the lives of that young couple in the car

If she’d seen through Jack’s facade just a few minutes earlier, maybe she could have saved Stefan

"We can’t wait for Daht be our only chance to track it down and find out about Jack"

Matt’s Adaave her a small smile and pressed forward Jasmine’s face was set, and Bonnie’s small chin jutted forward defiantly Alaric nodded at Elena

We can do this, Elena thought We have to

The woods opened up into a clearing with a se, still sheltered by the trees

"That’s it," Bonnie said

Hansel and Gretel, Elena thought It looked just like the witch’s cottage, gabled and orna off the porch and s The cottage was precious and nestled deep in the woods Elena wiped her sweaty pal about this little house

"Are we ready?" she asked, staring at the house Its s flashed, reflecting sunlight back at her Did so move behind them? She tried to focus her Power to see if she could sense an aura there, but felt nothing

"Maybe we should try talking to the vampire first," Matt blurted out They all looked at him, and he blushed "He--or she--hasn’t attacked us We want inforoing to try to kill you right away Damon wouldn’t Stefan and Chloe wouldn’t have" Jasmine’s hand slipped into his, Elena noted So Matt had told her about poor Chloe, his college girlfriend who had becoht," Bonnie said "I’ we’ll be able to hold a valanced at Alaric "If we can put a strong enough protection spell over all of us"

As they spoke, Elena’s disco to apprehension She began to breathe faster, her heart banging against her chest She focused on the first floor s They see out at her across the porch

"There’s so," she said suddenly She was sure of it

She had to get in there right now So up, and she felt hypersensitive to everything around her: the breeze through the trees, the chirp of the birds, the freshsmell of pines andmoved

It was her Guardian Powers Behind those blank s, so on?" Bonnie asked her, but Elena was already striding out into the clearing, abandoning any atte after her

The porch steps creaked under her feet Up close, the gingerbread cottage was grimy and out of repair, the scrollwork tri her stake She tried again to find an aura inside the house, but her perception re terrible was happening only grew stronger