Unmasked (The Vampire Diaries 13)

Elena was having trouble catching her breath. Bonnie’s Power was incredibly strong, although in this time she didn’t know how to use it. If there was something in Elena’s future that frightened Bonnie this badly, then Elena should be frightened, too. “Bonnie?” Elena asked anxiously, reaching toward her again. “Tell me.”

There was something panicked in the smaller girl’s face, and she shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s a dumb game.”

Unsure of what to do, Elena wavered. She couldn’t make Bonnie tell her anything. But if what Bonnie saw in her palm had changed, maybe it was a clue to how her plan was going to work, how things would turn out differently. It might be important.

But maybe it was just showing all the awful things that had already happened to Elena after this moment—the future that hadn’t yet appeared for Elena of the past. The future she was going to change.

Elena swallowed hard. That was it, it must be, she reassured herself. Bonnie was seeing things she didn’t understand, frightening things. But it wasn’t Elena’s future, not now.

“We should head into class,” Meredith said, sounding slightly irritated as she glanced at her watch.

They were turning toward the school building when the roar of a finely tuned motor stopped them in their tracks. The group of girls swung around to look.

“Well, now,” Caroline said, her green eyes speculative. “Quite a car.”

“Quite a Porsche,” Meredith corrected dryly.

Elena didn’t look; she kept her gaze firmly fixed on the brick façade of the school. But she could hear it, the purring of the sleek black Porsche’s engine as its driver searched for a spot, and her heart pounded wildly in her chest.

A new student had arrived, one she’d been waiting for despite herself.

Stefan.

Elena’s heart clenched. She had to look. She couldn’t help herself.

Talking to Stefan, touching Stefan, wasn’t an option. But she was going to take this chance to at least see him, a chance she had thought would never come again.

The purr of the engine died, and she heard the car door open before she glanced up.

“Oh my God,” Caroline whispered.

“You can say that again,” breathed Bonnie.

Oh, Stefan.

He was alive. He was here. He looked just as he had that last night they’d been together. Elena wanted to run to him and wrap herself around his lean body, run her fingers through his wavy dark hair, kiss the sad curve of his mouth. Sunglasses shielded his face like a mask, but Elena knew Stefan well enough to see through the protection they provided. She could sense the misery that had driven him to enroll in school, had made him try to act like a teenage boy so that he could have some brief human contact.

Everything in her pulled toward him. But if she ran to him, everything would lead straight to where she had come from. Stefan dead, Elena dying, Damon broken.

Elena bit her lip so hard she tasted blood, and stayed where she was.

“Who is that masked man?” Meredith asked, and everyone giggled.

“Do you see that jacket?” one of the hangers-on asked. “That’s Italian, as in Roma.”

“How would you know? You’ve never been farther than Rome, New York, in your life!” her friend answered.

Stefan was heading toward the school, a few rows of cars between him and the group of girls. The rhythm of his steps hitched and paused for just a moment. Elena felt a jolt. He had caught sight of her, she knew. There was a moment when he just stared from behind his sunglasses, his gaze burning into Elena. What was he seeing, she wondered? Her uncanny resemblance to Katherine, certainly, but Elena couldn’t help hoping there was more to it than that. Even this early, could Stefan sense something more in her than the looks of his lost love?

After a moment, Stefan began to walk again, continuing smoothly on. Elena stared after him, feeling raw and exposed.

“Uh-oh,” another hanger-on said, a touch of envy in her voice. “Elena’s got that look again. The hunting look.”

“New Boy had better be careful.”

Elena pulled herself together and slapped on an expression of disdain. Tossing her head, she began to walk toward the school. “Hardly,” she said. “I’ve got big plans for this year. And they don’t include some random boy, no matter how nice his car is.”

The other girls crowded behind her in a close-knit pack.