The Vampire Diaries: The Salvation: Unspoken

BOOKS IN THE VAMPIRE DIARIES SERIES

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. I: THE AWAKENING

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. II: THE STRUGGLE

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. III: THE FURY

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. IV: DARK REUNION

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE RETURN VOL. 1: NIGHTFALL

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE RETURN VOL. 2: SHADOW SOULS

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE RETURN VOL. 3: MIDNIGHT

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE HUNTERS VOL. 1: PHANTOM

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE HUNTERS VOL. 2: MOONSONG

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE HUNTERS VOL. 3: DESTINY RISING

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE SALVATION VOL. 1: UNSEEN

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
STEFAN’S DIARIES VOL. 1: ORIGINS

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
STEFAN’S DIARIES VOL. 2: BLOODLUST

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
STEFAN’S DIARIES VOL. 3: THE CRAVING

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
STEFAN’S DIARIES VOL. 4: THE RIPPER

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
STEFAN’S DIARIES VOL. 5: THE ASYLUM

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
STEFAN’S DIARIES VOL. 6: THE COMPELLED

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The Vampire Diaries: The Salvation: Unspoken © 2013 by Alloy Entertainment and L.J. Smith
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Alloy Entertainment. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), write to
[email protected]
.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Produced by Alloy Entertainment
1700 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
www.alloyentertainment.com

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2013948460

First edition November 2013

Published by 47North, Seattle
www.apub.com

ISBN 10: 1612184626
ISBN 13: 9781612184623

Cover Design by Liz Dresner

Contents

A Note About the Hashtags in This Book

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

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34

About the Author

A Note About the Hashtags in This Book

Elena’s diary may be private, but this book doesn’t have to be.

Everyone’s talking about the biggest shockers, twists, and swoon-worthy moments.

Look for the hashtags throughout this book and share your own reactions on Twitter. To connect with other readers right now, tag your tweets with
#TVD12
.

M
eredith desperately struggled against the metal restraints binding her arms and legs to the operating table. She closed her eyes, straining her muscles, adrenaline surging through her, but the restraints wouldn’t budge.

“Please,” she begged, hot tears running down her cheeks.

Jack ignored her pleas, focusing intently on her neck as he slowly slid a hypodermic needle beneath her skin.

“Almost done,” he said, depressing the plunger. Meredith’s neck was too numb to feel the needle, but the injection burned as it spread through her veins. She gasped and tried once more to rip her arm away from her captor.

Jack’s eyes were on hers as she writhed. The same warm hazel eyes as they’d been when Meredith had thought of him as a mentor, as one of the best hunters she’d ever met.
Before she knew Jack was a vampire. Before he had murdered Stefan.

Before she’d known he was
changing
her.

“I don’t want to be a vampire,” she whispered, her voice shaking. Her eyes blurred with tears. Meredith thought of Cristian, the vampire brother she’d had to kill, of the generations of her family whose life mission had been to destroy the supernatural race. She
couldn’t
become one of the enemy, not after everything she’d been through.

A brief smile crossed Jack’s face, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “It’s done.”

Meredith ached everywhere. She began to shake her head slowly, back and forth, as her breath came in ragged, anxious spurts. “I’ll kill myself,” she said desperately.

Jack grinned more widely. “Go ahead and try,” he said. “I’ve perfected the treatments. We’re unkillable.”

With a fresh flare of panic, Meredith again slammed her arms and legs against the restraints. The heavy, numb feeling was fading, and metal bit sharply into her wrists. In a burst of effort, she snapped the metal bands and was free. Meredith tumbled off the operating table and, still shaky on her feet, hit the floor hard.

On her hands and knees, she scrabbled for the door, expecting Jack to hoist her back onto the table at any moment. But Jack didn’t make a move toward her, just watched as she struggled. She could hear herself breathing,
a harsh, desperate panting, as she pulled herself across the floor. She just needed to get
out.

She made it to the door and pulled herself up, hanging onto the knob.

“You’ll be back,” Jack said, his voice an eerie calm.

Wrenching the door open, Meredith burst through and ran as fast as she could, stumbling through the hall. It was long and fluorescent-lit, the floors dark gray tile like those of a hospital or a school. She listened for Jack’s footsteps in the hall behind her, but there was only his laughter, bubbling maniacally, from the room she had left behind.

“You’ll be back,” he called again. “You won’t be able to help it.”

Not letting herself think of anything but escape, Meredith looked around frantically. Double doors at the end of the hall led toward a stairway, and she pushed through, her feet slapping at the concrete stairs, heading down and—she hoped—out.

The stairs seemed to go on forever. Finally, she burst through another set of double doors and onto the sidewalk. She paused for a moment, gasping for breath as she gazed around. Office buildings stretched behind her. She had no idea where she was. It was still dark out, but the sky was beginning to lighten toward gray.

Everything in her was screaming,
get away
, her heart still hammering in panic. What if Jack’s fierce, invulnerable
vampires were nearby? Meredith pressed her back against the cold brick wall of the building behind her, trying to conceal herself in the darkness, and looked around cautiously. No one.

She sucked in a deep breath, trying to calm her pounding heart. There’d be no sense in running at random. She clenched her fists and deliberately relaxed, forcing the tension out of her body. She was steadier on her feet now, her arms and legs tingling as the numbness wore off. There was no one in sight. To her left, Meredith heard the sound of cars racing past on a highway. She headed in that direction, ready to find her way home.