The scream came from near the bathrooms.
I was clearing tables when it happened—a girl I vaguely recognized from school, stumbling out of the back hallway with blood on her neck and glazed eyes. Damon's work. He'd drugged her, fed on her, and positioned her where she'd create maximum chaos.
"She's been attacked!" Someone was already calling 911. "There's blood everywhere!"
The Grill dissolved into pandemonium. Customers shouting, staff trying to maintain order, the particular panic of people confronting something they didn't understand.
And there, in the center of it, Lexi.
Damon had played his hand perfectly. He was nowhere to be seen, but the girl was pointing at Lexi with trembling fingers. "Her. The blonde. She did it."
Deputies burst through the front door—Sheriff Forbes in the lead, weapon drawn. I saw the wooden bullets in her gun, the crossbow one deputy carried, the grim determination of people who knew they were hunting monsters.
"Nobody move!"
Lexi was already moving.
She'd taken my warning seriously, positioning herself near the back exit instead of the center of the room. When the deputies opened fire, she was three steps ahead of them, crashing through the emergency door into the alley behind the Grill.
Two shots caught her in the back anyway. She stumbled, vampire blood spraying, but didn't fall.
I grabbed the vervain water bottle from behind the bar—my personal supply, kept for emergencies exactly like this—and ran.
The alley was chaos. Lexi on her knees, trying to push herself up. Deputies closing in from both ends. And Damon, appearing from the shadows with a stake in his hand, playing the heroic citizen helping law enforcement.
"I've got her!" His voice was all performance, all helpful civilian. "Don't let her get away!"
He moved toward Lexi, stake raised, and I threw.
The vervain water hit Damon square in the face.
His scream was satisfying on a level I didn't want to examine. The holy water—or what passed for it in vampire terms—sizzled against his skin, sending him stumbling back, stake clattering to the ground.
Lexi didn't hesitate. She was gone before the deputies could react, vanishing into the darkness with supernatural speed despite her wounds.
"She's getting away!" Sheriff Forbes sprinted after her, but human speed was nothing against vampire desperation. Within seconds, Lexi was gone.
Damon turned to face me, vervain burns already healing, eyes promising murder.
"You."
"I panicked." I kept my expression innocent, terrified-civilian. "I saw the stake and I thought—she was so fast—I just threw what I had—"
The lie was thin. We both knew it. But Sheriff Forbes was watching, and Damon couldn't expose my interference without exposing himself.
"Brave kid." He forced the words through gritted teeth. "Stupid, but brave."
"The vampire escaped." Sheriff Forbes holstered her weapon, frustrated. "We need to sweep the area. Mr. Salvatore, thank you for your assistance. Matt, go home. You've had enough excitement for one night."
I didn't argue.
Caroline found me in the Grill's back room, hands shaking as I cleaned up the spilled vervain. Her expression was a mixture of concern and confusion.
"Matt? What happened? Everyone's saying there was an attack—"
"I'm fine." The words came out steadier than I felt. "Just... stress. About Vicki. Everything."
She accepted the lie because she wanted to believe it, wrapping her arms around me and holding on. The vervain bracelet on her wrist—my bracelet, the protection I'd given her months ago—pressed against my shoulder.
"Come home with me tonight," she said. "I don't want you to be alone."
"I need to finish my shift."
"Marco already sent you home. He said you looked like you'd seen a ghost."
I had seen a ghost. A ghost of the timeline that was supposed to happen, where Lexi died and Stefan lost his best friend and Damon got away with murder again.
Not this time.
Caroline drove me to her house, and I sat on her bed while she made hot chocolate neither of us really wanted. Sheriff Forbes was still out hunting vampires, and the house was quiet.
At midnight, my phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number.
I owe you one, blood boy. Stay alive long enough to collect. — L
Lexi made it. Wounded but alive.
One small victory.
But Damon knew what I'd done. He'd felt the vervain burn, seen me throw it, understood that the escape wasn't accident but sabotage. Whatever fragile peace had existed between us—predator tolerating prey—was over.
The next attack would come. I just didn't know when.
I showed Caroline the text without explaining it, let her assume it was about Vicki, and accepted her comfort without correcting her misconceptions.
Feel first. Control second. Survive.
The meditation came easier now, even lying in Caroline's bed with her head on my chest. I felt her heartbeat, steady and trusting. Felt the blood flowing through her veins, protected by the vervain I'd woven into her life without her knowledge.
She was alive because of my preparations. Lexi was alive because of my warning. These small victories were the only things keeping me sane.
Damon's revenge would come. But so would my Stage 2. And when we finally settled this, I intended to be ready.
Sleep came slowly, with Caroline's warmth beside me and the weight of Damon's fury waiting somewhere in the darkness.
Tomorrow, the war continued. But tonight, I'd saved a life.
It was almost enough to balance against all the ones I'd lost.
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