The Vampire Diaries: The Salvation: Unspoken by L J Smith, Aubrey Clark Page B

Besides, she’d find a cure before anyone else found out the truth,she promised herself, stuffing her hands into her pockets so no one could see them shake.
    Behind her, Jasmine pressed her back against the wall, as far from the imprisoned vampire as she could get. She was holding tightly to Matt’s hand, and Meredith could hear her quick, panicked little breaths. This was Jasmine’s first face-to-face encounter with an unfriendly vampire, Meredith realized. Matt was stroking her hair with his other hand, comforting, his attention on Jasmine. The vampire thrashed and kicked, straining against his bonds, the handcuffs clanging against the bars of his cage, and Jasmine yelped, burying her face in Matt’s shoulder.
    “Let me try something,” Damon said, and picked up a stake from the floor. The vampire in the cage stopped twisting at his handcuffs and stood very still, his eyes narrowed.
    “We know that won’t kill him,” Elena said, her voice even. She and Damon glanced at each other, clearly in perfect accord.
They were strangely alike,
Meredith thought.
    “It’ll hurt, though,” Damon said cheerfully. Turning, he slammed the stake between the bars and into the vampire’s chest. The kid gasped, a long rattling breath, and his eyes flew wide open. Damon pulled the stake out. A bright bubble of blood swelled out of the wound and trickled down the vampire’s chest, but Meredith could already see the hole closing up, leaving the vampire’s chest unmarked.
    “You see how quickly he heals,” Damon told them.
    Meredith flinched. The kid probably hadn’t asked for this to happen to him, either. That was true of most vampires, she supposed. They’d all been victims once. It wasn’t something she’d worried about, until now.
    She pulled her hand from her pocket and rubbed at her forehead. It was too much—the noise and the smells of her friends’ blood, all of them crowded together down here—and she was so hungry. She hadn’t had any blood since that shameful night Damon had found her.
    “Want to tell us where Jack’s hiding?” Damon said, his voice friendly. Meredith glanced between Damon and Elena. Elena was nibbling on her lip, her eyes bright. This was about Stefan, of course. It wasn’t just a vampire hunt. If they couldn’t take vengeance on Jack directly, torturing one of his creations would help.
    The vampire bared his teeth at Damon. “I don’t need to tell you,” he said. He sounded sulky, like the human teenager he had been probably only a month or two before. “Jack’ll find
you
, and then you’ll be sorry. I hope he lets me help kill you.”
    “Wrong answer.” Damon shoved the stake through his chest again, and the kid screamed, a high shrill sound. Meredith shuddered.
    When Damon pulled the stake out with a sickening squelch, the kid hung against the bars for a moment,panting, before the sullen expression settled back on his face. “He’ll get me out,” he muttered, and his eyes fixed on Meredith’s. Frozen to the spot, she met his gaze. Did
he
know what she was?
    Damon grinned, an angry, deadly grin, and gripped the stake again.
    Alaric coughed. “Instructive as this is,” he said dryly, “weren’t we going to discuss our plans?”
    “Right.” Damon loosened his grip on the stake and turned away from the young vampire.
    In that second, the vampire lunged at him with teeth and clawed fingers, reaching through the bars between them, moving so fast Meredith’s eyes could barely follow. Without thinking, she charged forward, shoving the kid away, her hands slamming against the bars of his cage.
    “Thank you.” Damon stepped back, rubbing at his neck. He glanced at the trapped vampire, his eyes sharp. “We’ll talk about this later,” he said, his tone threatening. The kid hadn’t been able to reach far, bound as he was, but there were bloody scrapes across the side of Damon’s throat.
    Relief loosened Meredith’s chest, and she took a deep breath. When it had come down