Phantom

"I didn’t even try," Bonnie said. "I’ve accepted that I’m too short."

Elena swam away from the bottom of the fal s and climbed onto the sand, settling next to Bonnie at Stefan’s feet. Matt climbed out of the water, too, and stood near the fal s, gazing up critical y. "Just jump feetfirst, Meredith," he cal ed teasingly. "You’re such a show-off."

Meredith was poised at the edge of the fal s. She saluted them and then leaped into a perfect swan dive, arching swiftly toward the pool, disappearing smoothly beneath the water with barely a splash.

"She was on the swim team," Bonnie said

conversational y to Stefan. "She has a row of ribbons and trophies on a shelf at home."

Stefan nodded absently, his eyes scanning the water. Surely Meredith’s head would break the surface in a second. The others had taken about this long to reemerge.

"Can I jump yet?" Alaric cal ed from above.

"No!" Elena shouted. She rose to her feet and she and Stefan exchanged a worried glance. Meredith had been down there too long.

Meredith surfaced, sputtering and pushing her wet hair out of her eyes. Stefan relaxed.

"I did it!" she cal ed. "I – "

Her eyes widened and she began to shriek, but her scream was cut off as she was abruptly yanked under the water by something they couldn’t see. In the space of a breath, she was gone.

For a moment, Stefan just stared at where Meredith had been, unable to move. Too slow, too slow, an internal voice taunted him, and he pictured Damon’s face, laughing cruel y and saying again, So fragile, Stefan. He couldn’t see Meredith anywhere under the clear, effervescent water. It was as if she had been taken suddenly away. Al of this flew through Stefan’s head in only a heartbeat, and then he dived into the water after her.

Underwater, he couldn’t see anything. The white water from the fal s bubbled up, throwing foam and golden sand in front of him.

Stefan urgently channeled his Power to his eyes, sharpening his vision, but mostly that just meant that now he could see the individual bubbles of the white water and the grains of sand in sharp relief. Where was Meredith?

The bubbling water was trying to push him up to the surface, too. He had to struggle to move forward through the murky water, reaching out. Something brushed his fingers and he grabbed at it, but it was only a handful of slippery pondweed.

Where was she? Time was running out. Humans could go without oxygen for only a few minutes before brain damage set in. A few minutes after that, there would be no recovery at al .

He remembered Elena’s drowning once more, the frail white shape that he had pul ed from Matt’s wrecked car, ice crystals in her hair. The water here was warm, but would kil Meredith just as surely. He swal owed a sob and reached out frantical y again into the shadowed depths. His fingers found skin, and it moved against his hand. Stefan grasped whatever limb it was, tight enough to bruise, and surged forward. In less than a second more, he could see that it was Meredith’s arm. She was conscious, her mouth tight with fear, her hair streaming around her in the water.

At first he couldn’t see why she hadn’t come to the surface. Then Meredith gestured emphatical y, reaching to fumble at long tendrils of pondweed that had somehow become entangled with her legs.

Stefan swam down, pushing against the white water from the fal s, and tried to work his hand under the pondweed to pul it off her. It was wrapped so tightly around Meredith’s legs that he couldn’t get his fingers beneath it. Her skin was pressed white by the strands.

Stefan struggled for a moment, then swam closer and let Power surge into him, sharpening and lengthening his canines. He bit, careful not to scratch Meredith’s legs, and pul ed at the pondweed, but it resisted him. A little late, he realized that the resilience of the plants must be supernatural: His Power-enhanced strength was enough to break bones, tear through metal, and should have had no problem with a bit of pondweed.

And final y – so slow, he reprimanded himself, always just so damn slow – he realized what he was looking at. Stefan felt his eyes widen in horror.

The tight strands of pondweed against Meredith’s long legs spel ed out a name.

Chapter 14

damon

Where were they? Elena watched the water anxiously. If anything had happened to Meredith or Stefan, it was Elena’s fault. She had convinced Stefan to let Meredith jump the fal s.

His objections had been total y reasonable; she could see that now. Meredith had been marked for death. For God’s sake, Celia had almost been kil ed simply getting off a train. What had Meredith been thinking, jumping off a cliff into water when she was in the same sort of peril? What had Elena been thinking of to let her? She should have been by Stefan’s side, holding Meredith back. And Stefan. She knew he ought to be fine; the rational part of her brain kept reminding her that Stefan was a vampire. He didn’t even need to breathe. He could stay underwater for days. He was incredibly strong. But not so long ago, she had thought Stefan was gone forever, stolen by the kitsune. Bad things could happen to him – vampire or not. If she lost him now through her own stupid fault, through her own stubbornness and insistence that everyone pretend that life could be the way it used to be – that they could have some simple fun without doom fol owing them – Elena would lie down and die.

"Do you see anything?" Bonnie asked, a tremble in her voice. Her freckles stood out in dark dots against her pale face, and her normal y exuberant red curls were plastered flat and dark against her head.

"No. Not from up here." Elena shot her a grim look, and before she even consciously made the decision, she dived into the pool.

Underwater, Elena’s vision was clouded by the froth and sand thrown up by the fal s, and she treaded water for a moment as she tried to peer around. She saw a patch of darkness that looked like it might be human figures off near the middle of the pool and struck out toward it. Thank God, Elena thought fervently. When she got closer, the darkness resolved itself into Meredith and Stefan. They seemed to be struggling against something in the water, Stefan’s face near Meredith’s legs, Meredith’s hands reaching desperately toward the surface. Her face was bluish from lack of oxygen, and her eyes were wide with panic.