The Vampire Diaries: Trust In Betrayal (Kindle Worlds) (In Time We Trust Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

“It’s our fault you were bitten,” Stefan says quietly.

My arm around Elena’s shoulder tightens reflexively against the impulse to smack him for being so melodramatic.

He ducks his head, catching Cali’s eyes, and she stills. “Please,” he whispers.

Katherine stops fidgeting and looks over at him, and Matt frowns, stuffing his hands into his pockets. His wrist is already healed, thanks to yours truly, and the fact that Stefan refused to do it and is now volunteering for Cali…

My back tenses and Elena slides an arm around my waist, petting my side underneath my jacket. I’m all for Stefan not being such a Prissy Pants about healing his donors, but there’s something about the way he always looks at Cali that stirs something dark and unsettled deep in my gut, and I can’t put my finger on what it is.

Cali shifts and clears her throat, her eyes darting around the deserted parking lot. “Fine. How much do I have to drink?”

Stefan stands a little taller, a subtle movement I doubt she noticed.

“You’ll feel when it starts to work.”

He touches the small of her back, guiding her around the bed of the truck so its silhouette shields her from any bored diner employees peering out into the night. Jeremy takes an uncertain step toward them, his shoulders hunching under his hoodie.

Katherine huffs impatiently. “I’ll be inside.”

She flounces away toward the entrance, dressed to the nines. She wouldn’t leave her house without a stuffed suitcase, not that she offered to share any of it with Elena. But I gave her three minutes and she was packed in two point seven so I tossed her and the suitcase in Matt’s truck and didn’t complain, even though I had a perfect right to.

Caroline follows her and after a moment of hesitation, so does Matt. Ric quirks an eyebrow at me and I make a dismissive noise, so he heads in, too.

Cali looks tiny against the tall tailgate of the truck, Stefan standing so close that she’s almost completely hidden by his chest. Jeremy kicks his foot restlessly against the pavement and a pebble bounces away underneath the truck.

Elena tilts her head back, nuzzling her mouth in next to my ear and sending a thrill of pleasure racing down my back.

“I offered three times to heal her,” Elena whispers. “What did he do, compel her?”

I shake my head, because I didn’t see Cali’s pupils dilate. I don’t think Elena would appreciate me bringing it up, but one of the reasons Stefan’s gotten along so well as a vampire is because girls always trust him.

Stefan turns away so she won’t see his face change and bites into his wrist. When he faces her again, she rolls her eyes and mutters something that was likely a curse. She grabs his wrist and ducks her head to it, hesitating as she figures out the best way to seal her lips over the wound.

I remember the way her face looked in the forest, when I compelled her to enjoy Stefan’s blood. That night she was almost blissful, instead of a little stiff and a lot of awkward. I wonder if Stefan’s fascination with her will wane when he realizes the magic of their bloodshare was only because she was his first.

Because he’s only ever been the villain or the hero, but with Cali, he was both at once.

Jeremy's arms are so tense I'm waiting for his fists to come tearing out of his pockets but he doesn't interfere. I watch him, wondering if it's jealousy or his Hunter instincts that are kicking in. Either one would make for a bitch of a testosterone cocktail, and it would really fuck up my breakfast plans if I have to drag him off my brother right now.

Cali straightens back up and wipes her mouth on the back of her hand with a grimace. “Well, that was fucking weird.” Stefan’s breathing harder than she is, his head bent toward her, and she peeks up at him, a little alarmed. “You okay?”

He blinks and nods, still searching her face. She sidles out from between him and the truck, ducking her head to avoid his eyes.

“Um, thanks. For uh, that,” she says, and reaches up to her bandage, yanking it off with a quick, vicious movement.

I feel Elena wince sympathetically at the ripping sound of the tape and I press a kiss to her hair, trying to hold back a smile.

“Better?” Cali asks, turning to Jeremy and tilting her head up for his inspection.

Jeremy’s thumb rubs softly over her throat, taking away the last traces of blood. “Better,” he agrees.

“Well, is everybody ready to eat?” Elena asks, a little too brightly.

“Now that the human’s all patched up and freshly refilled.” I flare my eyes in Cali’s direction. “I don’t mind if I do.”

Jeremy gives me an annoyed look. “Not cool, man.”

“Just try it, Sparky,” Cali says dryly. “I’d kill you just for that car, and at least this way we can call it self-defense.”

She balls up her bandages and makes a three-pointer with nothing but net in the trash can beside the entrance, and then pulls open the door and heads inside with Jeremy following along behind.

I frown, letting go of Elena and taking a quick step forward so I can smack him in the side of the head for his lack of manners.

“Ow,” he complains. “What was that for?”

I just shake my head. “Kids these days.”

Caroline waves her hands to draw our attention to where she’s had the staff set up three tables end to end to make room for all nine of us.

“Did it go okay?” she asks Cali. “I know it can be a little…icky.”

Cali smiles wryly and drops into the seat next to her. “It wasn’t the way I was hoping to lead into breakfast.”

“Here,” Caroline says, digging in her purse for a breath mint. “It’s citrus, not mint.” She drops her voice. “Covers up the copper flavor a little better.”

Cali takes it with a bemused look. “And I thought
my
friends were strange.” She pops it into her mouth anyway. “Thanks.”

Elena grabs a spot on the end and tugs me down next to her. Stefan takes the seat between me and Katherine without comment, which is probably for the best. Jeremy sprawls into the chair across from his sister and next to his little girlfriend, still looking irked at my impromptu lesson in chivalry.

“Is it really safe to stop here?” Matt asks, his eyes bouncing nervously around the too-bright dining room.

“A better question,” Cali says, nabbing a menu from the stack in the middle of the table, “would be is it safe to go any further without providing Cali with pork products. And the answer? Definitively not.”

Katherine gives her a disgusted once over that looks like it weighed her out at five pounds over the limit even though I’d bet that little pixie is a digit or two beneath Katherine’s own dress size.

I rap a knuckle so Donovan will lean forward enough to see me at the other end of the long table, and then I point to where a stout, grey-haired waitress is lowering the shades so we won’t be blinded by the sun starting to peek over the horizon.

“None of our little friends last night were wearing rings,” I tell him. “Which means our drive time just got switched to night shift for the duration of this road trip.”

“A lack of bling,” Cali mutters into her menu. “Tragic.” Jeremy snickers, and she shoots him a look from underneath her eyelashes. “Bacon or ham steak?” she proposes. “I’m fresh out of coins to flip.”

He looks at her like she’s out of her mind. “Both.”

She smiles and snaps her menu shut, folding her hands on top of it, the rings on her fingers clicking together decisively as she trains the stripped-down intensity of her pale blue eyes on me.

“Look, I told you about my grandma’s situation, and I really appreciate you guys offering to set up care for her, but it’s just not that easy.”

“I already did,” Elena interrupts, her brown eyes soft. “While you were getting clothes for us earlier. It’s Compassionate Care, the best agency in town. They’re staffed twenty-four hours a day and you can call whenever you want with more specific instructions. They had her, um, on file already and they said her insurance will cover it.”

“Right,” Cali says, looking a little uncomfortable for once.

Elena smiles hopefully, and Jeremy’s eyes bob back and forth between the two of them.

“The thing is,” Cali says, lowering her voice as if that will make a conversation at a table of eight strangers more private, “those places don’t always do the best job.”

Elena’s face falls and I swallow a sigh. When we had Cali stuck in the basement, she was whiny as hell about the grandma, which is why Elena compelled the best standard of care in seven countries and two commonwealths into the nurses at Compassionate Care. My girl may be like the battle-hardened spirits of Valhalla risen again when you threaten her family, but she has the tender heart of a preschool teacher when it comes to shit like this.

“Yup.” I nod and Cali’s eyebrows shoot up at my agreement.

I signal the geriatric waitress for coffee. Swear to God, if she doesn’t get here in the next two minutes I’ll feed her my blood just to give her a little spunk and speed up the service. Her husband’s Viagra prescription can thank me later.

I give Cali an artificial smile. “That’s why I called another agency and made sure we’d have an extra nurse on staff at all times. They’re from competing companies.” I give her a wink. “People do better when they know they’re being watched.”

Cali’s mouth falls open slightly.

“You made
me
call,” Ric protests from the other end of the table.

“I was driving. Safety first. Besides, I gave you my fake credit card number and my fake phone to do it, so I don’t think a little gratitude is out of the question,” I complain.

In my bag of tricks in the trunk I always keep an untraceable credit card and a bundle of cash, and tonight that’s coming in very handy. The only thing left I haven’t used yet is extra bourbon and vampire killing weapons, and I hope to remedy that in short order.

“It’s not a fake phone,” Stefan says. “It’s pre-paid. And speaking of that, the phones we got all of you are limited to—” I tune him out when he starts talking numbers, and cast a look around for the damned waitress.

I finally spot her headed our way with the coffee pot, but we’re going to have to put her on a moving walkway if we want caffeine before Christmas.

Leaning back in my seat, I close my eyes tiredly. Elena reaches under the table, her slim fingers walking their way inside the loose curl of mine. I snap my hand closed, a smile tickling the corner of my mouth, and she tugs playfully, pretending to try and get away.

“Were the new phones really necessary?” Katherine asks. “What are the chances that a bunch of amateur hunters have the skills or connections to trace our locations based on our cell phones? I think somebody’s been watching a little bit too much
Arrow
.”

“Wait,
you’ve
been watching
Arrow
?” Jeremy snorts.

Caroline leans back in her chair and folds her arms. “Have you seen the abs on that show? Even my mom’s been watching it.”

“Of course she has. It’s not like there’s anything
else
to do in Mystic Falls,” Katherine says.

“So move,” I tell her.

Stefan sighs. “Can we stop talking about abs and make a plan, please?”

“I think we all need to get some sleep,” Elena says, and squeezes my hand pointedly.

My eyes pop open and I give her a narrow-eyed, affronted look. I can drive all day and still be fresh for fighting by sundown and she knows it. I was just resting my eyes.