Blood Will Tell (The Vampire Diaries 4.5)

And you gave me the knowledge that I’m not a baby. Plus all the fireworks that Elena promised. She said that no one would be afraid if they’d never shared blood with a vampire before. She told the truth. So if I you did take too much, I win, and if you didn’t . . . well, I still win. Bonnie hugged herself for pure ecstasy.

“But how did you know? What a vampire does when he miscalculates?” Shocked? Girls talk. Maybe more than guys do; I don’t know.

I don’t either. Are you shocked?

It’s quite an experience, waking up to find you’re drinking blood. But I was half prepared for it. And now I feel like wrestling elephants.

He couldn’t help but smile. She was amazing, but telling her that, here, now, was not a good idea.

Matt

Matt had to find his own way up to Stefan’s crow’s nest room.

The room was dim, and it was hard to see more of Stefan than a silhouette in profile. He seemed to be looking at the dusty window.

It was disconcerting, to say the least, to know that Stefan could see perfectly in this semidarkness.

It was even more disconcerting when Stefan spoke.

" Ave, Matt! Morituri te salutant," Stefan said cheerfully.

"Huh?"

"S'joke. A joke," Stefan said, enunciating more carefully. "Latin.

Hail, Matt. We who are about to die salute you. Salude!"

Matt stared.

"Mer'dith thought it w’s funny."

"Meredith knows Latin?"

"Yeah. Mer’dith"—Stefan held up one finger. It was hard to know whether it meant

"don't interrupt" or "let me tell you a few things, starting with . . . " and Matt didn't think he could stand still for a long speech. His heart was already pounding. Damn. Stefan could probably hear that. Probably? What would a vampire be more attuned to hearing than the muscle that pushed around the blood of its prey?

Does he know my mouth is dry, too? And that I want to run? Probably, Matt thought, bitterly. They've got senses that make humans look like those worm things that can only tell light from dark. Does he know what that makes humans feel like doing to vampires?

Vaguely shocked, he thought, how long have I wanted to punch him in the mouth?

Just once. Just once to see a fist and a vampire falling flat on his ass. Because of a real human person. Not me. Any real human.

But Matt could feel the tingling in his own fist clenched tightly.

Stefan had been talking for a while and Matt's brain helped him catch up by providing echoes of what he'd missed.

"Mer'dith knows a lotta things. Very smart. Bright. Ha. That's a joke, too. Ssee?

Because she's dark. You know? You don't wanna know. She's dark 'but comely.'

Humanss"—again that exaggerated hiss on the sibilant—"have so many prejudishes. Back in . . . not long ago, you know . . . your basic beautiful woman hadda be fair. Blond. All your lingwy—lingwa—language stuff showss how—"

Matt's hand unclenched. His mind trolled blindly.

"You're drunk!"

"Of coursse not." The silhouette straightened and tipped its chin up aggressively.