2 страница. “Just hungry,” Damon replied urbanely, still surveying the boardinghouse

 

“Just hungry,” Damon replied urbanely, still surveying the boardinghouse. “And what happened to basic civility, by the way? I drive all the way out here and do I get a ‘Hello, Damon,’ or ‘Nice to see you, Damon’? No. Instead I hear ‘What have you been doing, Damon?’” He gave the imitation a whining, mocking twist. “I wonder what Signore Marino would think of that, little brother?”

 

“Signore Marino,” Stefan said through his teeth, wondering how Damon was able to get under his skin every time—today with a reference to their old tutor of etiquette and dancing—“has been dust for hundreds of years by now—as we should be, too. Which has nothing to do with this conversation,brother. I asked you what you were doing, and you know what I meant by it—you must have bled half the girls in town.”

 

“Girls and women,” Damon reproved, holding up a finger facetiously. “We must be politically correct, after all. And maybe you should be taking a closer look at your own diet. If you drank more, you might begin to fill out. Who knows?”

 

“If I drank more—?” There were a number of ways to finish this sentence, but no good ones. “What a pity,” he said instead to the short, slim, and compact Damon, “thatyou’ll never grow another millimeter taller however long you live. And now, why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here, after leaving so many messes in town for me to clean up—if I know you.”

 

“I’m here because I want my leather jacket back,” Damon said flatly.

 

“Why not just steal anoth—?” Stefan broke off as he suddenly found himself flying briefly backward and then pinned against the groaning boards of the boardinghouse wall, with Damon right in his face.

 

“I didn’t steal these things,boy. I paid for them—in my own coin. Dreams, fantasies, and pleasure from beyond this world.” Damon said the last words with emphasis, since he knew they would infuriate Stefan the most.

 

Stefanwas infuriated—and in a dilemma. He knew Damon was curious about Elena. That was bad enough. But right now he could also see a strange gleam in Damon’s eyes. As if the pupils had, for a moment, reflected a flame. And whatever Damon had been doing today was abnormal. Stefan didn’t know what was going on, but he knew just how Damon was going to finish this off.

 

“But a real vampire shouldn’t pay,” Damon was saying in his most taunting tones. “After all, we’re so wicked that we ought to be dust. Isn’t that right, little brother?” He held up the hand with the finger on which he wore the lapis lazuli ring that kept him from crumbling to dust in the golden afternoon sunlight. And then, as Stefan made a movement, Damon used that hand to pin Stefan’s wrist to the wall.

 

Stefan feinted to the left and then lunged right to break Damon’s hold on him. But Damon was fast as a snake—no, faster. Much faster than usual. Fast and strong with all the energy of the life force he’d absorbed.

 

“Damon, you…” Stefan was so angry that he briefly lost his hold on rational thought and tried to swipe Damon’s legs out from under him.

 

“Yes, it’s me, Damon,” Damon said with jubilant venom. “And I don’t pay if I don’t feel like it; I just take. Itake what I want, and I give nothing in return.”

 

Stefan stared into those heated black-on-black eyes and again saw the tiny flicker of flame. He tried to think. Damon was always quick to attack, to take offense. Butnot like this. Stefan had known him long enough to know something was off; something was wrong. Damon seemed almost feverish. Stefan sent a small surge of Power toward his brother, like a radar sweep, trying to put his finger on what was different.

 

“Yes, I see you’ve got the idea, but you’ll never get anywhere that way,” Damon said wryly, and then suddenly Stefan’s insides, his entire body was on fire, was in agony, as Damon lashed out with a violent whip of his own Power.

 

And now, however bad the pain was, Stefan had to be coldly rational; he had to keepthinking, not just reacting. He made a small movement, twisting his neck to the side, looking toward the door of the boardinghouse. If only Elena would stay inside…

 

But it was hard to think with Damon still whiplashing him. He was breathing fast and hard.

 

“That’s right,” Damon said. “We vampirestake —a lesson you need to learn.”

 

“Damon, we’re supposed to take care of each other—we promised—”

 

“Yes, and I’m going to take care ofyou right now.”

 

Then Damon bit him.

 

And Damon bled him.

 

It was even more painful than the lashings of Power, and Stefan held himself carefully still for it, refusing to put up a struggle. The razor-sharp teeth shouldn’t have hurt as they plunged into his carotid, but Damon was holding him at an angle—now by his hair—deliberately so that they did.

 

Then came the real pain. The agony of having blood drawn out against your will, against your resistance. That was a torture that humans compared with having their souls ripped out from their living bodies. They would do anything to avoid it. All Stefan knew was that it was one of the greatestphysical anguishes that he had ever had to endure, and that at last tears formed in his eyes and rolled down his temples and down into his wavy dark hair.

 

Worse, for a vampire, was the humiliation of having another vampire treat you like a human, treat you likemeat. Stefan’s heart was pounding in his ears as he writhed under the double carving knives of Damon’s canines, trying to bear the mortification of being used this way. At least—thank God—Elena had listened to him and stayed in his room.

 

He was beginning to wonder if Damon had truly gone insane and meant to kill him when—at last—with a shove that sent him off balance, Damon released him. Stefan tripped and fell, rolled, and looked up, only to find Damon standing over him again. He pressed his fingers to the torn flesh on his neck.

 

“And now,” Damon said coldly, “you will go up and get me my jacket.”

 

Stefan got up slowly. He knew Damon must be savoring this: Stefan’s humiliation, Stefan’s neat clothes wrinkled and covered with torn blades of grass and mud from Mrs. Flowers’ scraggly flower bed. He did his best to brush them off with one hand, the other still pressed to his neck.

 

“You’re quiet,” Damon remarked, standing by his Ferrari, running his tongue over his lips and gums, his eyes narrow with pleasure. “No snappy back talk? Not even a word? I think this is a lesson I should teach you more often.”

 

Stefan was having trouble making his legs move. Well, that went about as well as could be expected, he thought as he turned back toward the boardinghouse. Then he stopped.

 

Elena was leaning out of the unshuttered window in his room, holding Damon’s jacket. Her expression was very sober, suggesting she’d seen everything.

 

It was a shock for Stefan, but he suspected it was an even greater shock for Damon.

 

And then Elena whirled the jacket around once and threw it so that it made a direct landing at Damon’s feet, wrapping around them.

 

To Stefan’s astonishment, Damon went pale. He picked up the jacket as if he didn’t really want to touch it. His eyes were on Elena the whole time. He got in his car.

 

“Good-bye, Damon. I can’t say it’s been a pleasure—”

 

Without a word, looking for all the world like a naughty child who’d been whipped, Damon turned on the ignition.

 

“Just leave me alone,” he said expressionlessly in a low voice.

 

He drove off in a cloud of dust and gravel.

 

Elena’s eyes were not serene when Stefan shut the door to his room behind him. They were shining with a light that nearly stopped him in the doorway.

 

Hehurtyou.

 

“He hurts everyone. He doesn’t seem to be able to help it. But there was something weird about him today. I don’t know what. Right now, I don’t care. But look at you, making sentences!”

 

He’s…Elena paused, and for the first time since she’d first opened her eyes back in the glade where she had been resurrected, there was a frown-wrinkle on her forehead. She couldn’t make a picture. She didn’t know the right words.Something inside him. Growing inside him. Like…cold fire, dark light, she said finally.But hidden. Fire that burns from the inside out.

 

Stefan tried to match this up with anything he’d heard of and came up blank. He was still humiliated that Elena had seen what had happened. “AllI know that’s inside him is my blood. Along with that of half the girls in town.”

 

Elena shut her eyes and shook her head slowly. Then, as if deciding not to go any further down that path, she patted the bed beside her.

 

Come,she ordered confidently, looking up. The gold in her eyes seemed especially lustrous.Let me…unhurt…the pain.

 

When Stefan didn’t come immediately, she held out her arms. Stefan knew he shouldn’t go to them, but hewas hurt—especially in his pride.

 

He went to her and bent down to kiss her hair.

 

 

Later that day Caroline was sitting with Matt Honeycutt, Meredith Sulez, and Bonnie McCullough, all listening to Stefan on Bonnie’s mobile phone.

 

“Late afternoon would be better,” Stefan told Bonnie. “She takes a little nap after lunch—and anyway, it’ll be cooler in a couple hours. I told Elena you’d be coming by, and she’s excited to see you. But remember two things. First, it’s only been seven days since she came back, and she’s not quite…herself yet. I think she’ll get over her—symptoms—in just a few days, but meanwhile don’t be surprised by anything. And second, don’tsay anything about what you see here. Not to anyone.”

 

“Stefan Salvatore!” Bonnie was scandalized and offended. “After all we’ve been through together, you think we’d blab?”

 

“Not blab,” Stefan’s voice came back over the mobile, gently. But Bonnie was going on.

 

“We’ve stuck together through rogue vampires and the town’s ghost, and werewolves, and Old Ones, and secret crypts, and serial killings and—and—Damon—and have we ever told people about them?” Bonnie said.

 

“I’m sorry,” Stefan said. “I just meant that Elena won’t be safe if any of you tells even one person. It would be all over the newspapers right away:GIRL RETURNS TO LIFE. Andthen what do we do?”

 

“I understand about that,” Meredith said briefly, leaning in so that Stefan could see her. “You don’t need to worry. Every one of us will vow not to tellanyone.” Her dark eyes flicked momentarily toward Caroline and then away again.

 

“Ihave to ask you”—Stefan was making use of all his Renaissance training in politeness and chivalry, particularly considering that three of the four people watching him on the phone were female—“do you really have any way to enforce a vow?”

 

“Oh, I think so,” Meredith said pleasantly, this time looking Caroline directly in the eyes. Caroline flushed, her bronzed cheeks and throat turning scarlet. “Let us work it out, and in the afternoon, we’ll come over.”

 

Bonnie, who was holding the phone, said, “Anybody have anything else to say?”

 

Matt had remained silent during most of the conversation. Now he shook his head, making his shock of fair hair fly. Then, as if he couldn’t hold it back, he blurted, “Can we talk to Elena? Just to say hi? I mean—it’s been a wholeweek.” His tanned skin burned with a sunset glow almost as brightly as Caroline’s had.

 

“I think you’d better just come over. You’ll see why when you get here.” Stefan hung up.

 

They were at Meredith’s house, sitting around an old patio table in the backyard. “Well, we can at least take them some food,” Bonnie suggested, rocketing up from her seat. “God knows what Mrs. Flowers makes for them to eat—orif she does.” She made waving motions to the others as if to raise them from their chairs by levitation.

 

Matt started to obey, but Meredith remained seated. She said quietly, “We just made a promise to Stefan. There’s the matter of the vow first. And the consequences.”

 

“I know you’re thinking about me,” Caroline said. “Why don’t you just say so?”

 

“All right,” Meredith said, “I’m thinking about you. Why are you suddenly interested in Elena again? How can we be sure that you won’t go spreading the news of this all around Fell’s Church?”

 

“Why would I want to?”

 

“Attention. You’d love to be at the center of a crowd, giving them every juicy detail.”

 

“Or revenge,” Bonnie added, suddenly sitting down again. “Or jealousy. Or boredom. Or—”

 

“Okay,” Matt interrupted. “I think that’s enough with the reasons.”

 

“Just one more thing,” Meredith said quietly. “Why do youcare so much about seeing her, Caroline? The two of you haven’t gotten along in almost a year, ever since Stefan came to Fell’s Church. We let you in on the call to Stefan, but after what he said—”

 

“If you really need a reason why I should care, after everything that happened a week ago, well…well, I would think you’d understand without being told!” Caroline fixed shining cat-green eyes on Meredith.

 

Meredith looked back with her best no-expression expression.

 

“All right!” Caroline said. “She killed him for me. Or had him called to Judgment, or whatever. That vampire, Klaus. And after being kidnapped and—and—and—used—like a toy—whenever Klaus wanted blood—or—” Her face twisted and her breathing hitched.

 

Bonnie felt sympathy, but she also was wary. Her intuition was aching, warning her. And she noticed that although Caroline spoke about Klaus, the vampire, she was strangely silent about her other kidnapper, Tyler Smallwood, the werewolf. Maybe because Tyler had been her boyfriend until he and Klaus had held her hostage.

 

“I’m sorry,” Meredith said in a quiet voice thatdid sound sorry. “So you want to thank Elena.”

 

“Yes. I want to thank her.” Caroline was breathing hard. “And I want to make sure that she’s okay.”

 

“Okay. But this oath covers quite a bit of time,” Meredith continued calmly. “You may change your mind tomorrow, next week, a month from now…we haven’t even thought about consequences.”

 

“Look, we can’tthreaten Caroline,” Matt said. “Not physically.”

 

“Or get other people to threaten her,” Bonnie said wistfully.

 

“No, we can’t,” Meredith said. “But for the short term—you’re a sorority pledge this coming fall, aren’t you, Caroline? I can always tell your prospective sorority sisters that you broke your solemn vow about somebody who is helpless to hurt you—who I’m sure doesn’twant to hurt you. Somehow I don’t think they’d care for you much after that.”

 

Caroline’s face flushed deeply again. “You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t go interfering with my college—”

 

Meredith cut her off with two words. “Try me.”

 

Caroline seemed to wilt. “I never said I wouldn’t take the vow, and I never said I wouldn’t keep it. Justtry me, why don’t you? I—I’ve learned a few things this summer.”

 

I should hope so.The words, although nobody said them aloud, seemed to hover over all of them. Caroline’s hobby for the entire last year had been trying to find ways to hurt Stefan and Elena.

 

Bonnie shifted position. There was something—shadowed—behind what Caroline was saying. She didn’t know how she knew; it was the sixth sense that she’d been born with. But maybe it just had to do with how much Caroline had changed, with what she had learned, Bonnie told herself.

 

Look how many times she’d asked Bonnie in the last week about Elena. Was she really all right? Could Caroline send flowers? Could Elena have visitors yet? Whenwould she be all right? Caroline really had been a nuisance, although Bonnie didn’t have the heart to tell her that. Everyone else was waiting just as anxiously to see how Elena was…after returning from the afterlife.

 

Meredith, who always had a pen and paper, was scribbling some words. Now she said, “How about this?” and they all leaned forward to look at the pad.

 

I swear not to tellanyone about any supernatural events relating to Stefan or Elena, unless given specific permission to do so by Stefan or Elena. I will also help in the punishment of anyone who breaks this vow, in a way to be determined by the rest of the group. This vow is made in perpetuity, with my blood as my witness.

 

Matt was nodding his head. “‘In perpetuity’—perfect,” he said. “It sounds just like what an attorney would write.”

 

What followed was not particularly attorney-like. Each of the individuals around the table took the piece of paper, read it aloud, and then solemnly signed it. Then they each pricked a finger with a safety pin that Meredith had in her purse and added a drop of blood beside their signatures, with Bonnie shutting her eyes as she pricked herself.

 

“Now it’s really binding,” she said grimly, as one who knows. “I wouldn’t try to break this.”

 

“I’ve had enough of blood for a long time,” Matt said, squeezing his finger and looking at it gloomily.

 

That was when it happened. Meredith’s contract was sitting in the center of the table so all could admire it when, from a tall oak where the backyard met the forest, a crow came swooping down. It landed on the table with a raw-throated scream, causing Bonnie to scream, too. The crow cocked an eye at the four humans, who were hastily pulling back their chairs to get out of its way. Then it cocked its head the other way. It was the biggest crow any of them had ever seen, and the sun stroked iridescent rainbows from its plumage.

 

The crow seemed, for all the world, to be examining the contract. And then it did something so quickly that it made Bonnie dart behind Meredith, stumbling over her chair. It opened its wings, leaned forward, and pecked violently at the paper, seeming to aim at two specific spots.

 

And then it was gone, first fluttering, and then soaring off until it was a tiny black speck in the sun.

 

“It’s ruined all our work,” Bonnie cried, still safely behind Meredith.

 

“I don’t think so,” said Matt, who was closer to the table.

 

When they dared to move forward and look at the paper, Bonnie felt as if someone had thrown a blanket of ice around her back. Her heart began to pound.

 

Impossible as it seemed, the violent pecking was all red, as if the crow had retched up blood to color it. And the red marks, surprisingly delicate, looked exactly like an ornate letter:

 

D

 

And under that:

 

Elena is mine.

 

 

With the signed contract safely tucked in Bonnie’s purse, they pulled up to the boardinghouse in which Stefan had taken up residence again. They looked for Mrs. Flowers but couldn’t find her, as usual. So they walked up the narrowing steps with the worn carpet and splintering balustrade, hallooing as they came.

 

“Stefan! Elena! It’s us!”

 

The door at the very top opened and Stefan’s head came out. He looked—different somehow.

 

“Happier,” Bonnie whispered wisely to Meredith.

 

“Is he?”

 

“Of course.”Bonnie was shocked. “He’s got Elena back.”

 

“Yes, he does. Just the way she was when they met, I bet. You saw her in the woods.” Meredith’s voice was heavy with significance.

 

“But…that’s…oh, no! She’shuman again!”

 

Matt looked down the stairs and hissed, “Will you two quit it? They’re gonna hear us.”

 

Bonnie was confused. Of course Stefan could hear them, but if you were going to worry about what Stefan heard you’d have to worry about what youthought, too—Stefan could always catch the shape of what you were thinking, if not the actual words.

 

“Boys!” hissed Bonnie. “I mean I know they’re totally necessary and all, but sometimes they Just Don’t Get It.”

 

“Just wait till you try men,” whispered Meredith, and Bonnie thought of Alaric Saltzman, the college student that Meredith was more or less engaged to.

 

“I could tell you a thing or two,” Caroline added, examining her long, manicured nails with a world-weary look.

 

“But Bonnie doesn’t need to know even one yet. She has plenty of time to learn,” Meredith said, firmly in mothering mode. “Let’s go inside.”

 

“Sit down, sit down,” Stefan was encouraging them as they entered, the perfect host. But nobody could sit down. All eyes were fixed on Elena.

 

She was sitting in lotus position in front of the room’s only open window, with the fresh wind making her white nightgown billow. Her hair was true gold again, not the perilous white-gold it had become when Stefan had unintentionally turned into a vampire. She looked exactly the way Bonnie remembered her.

 

Except that she was floating three feet off the floor.

 

Stefan saw them all gawking.

 

“It’s just something she does,” he said almost apologetically. “She woke up the day after our fight with Klaus and started floating. I think gravity hasn’t quite got a hold on her yet.”

 

He turned back to Elena. “Look who’s come to see you,” he said enticingly.

 

Elena was looking. Her gold-flecked blue eyes were curious, and she was smiling, but there was no recognition as she looked from one visitor to another.

 

Bonnie had been holding her arms out.

 

“Elena?” she said. “It’sme, Bonnie, remember? I was there when you came back.I’m sure glad to seeyou.”

 

Stefan tried again. “Elena, remember? These are your friends, your good friends. This tall, dark-haired beauty is Meredith, and this fiery little pixie is Bonnie, and this guy with the all-American looks is Matt.”

 

Something flickered in Elena’s face, and Stefan repeated, “Matt.”

 

“And what about me? Or am I invisible?” Caroline said from the doorway. She sounded good-humored enough, but Bonnie knew that it made Caroline grind her teeth just to see Stefan and Elena together and out of danger.

 

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Stefan said, and he did something that no ordinary eighteen-year-old could have pulled off without looking like an idiot. He took Caroline’s hand and kissed it as gracefully and unthinkingly as if he were some count from nearly half a millennium ago. Which, of course, was pretty much what he was, Bonnie thought.

 

Caroline looked slightly smug—Stefan had taken his time with the hand kiss. Now he said, “And last but not least, this tanned beauty here is Caroline.” Then, very gently, in a voice that Bonnie had heard him use only a few times since she’d known him, he said, “Don’t you remember them, love? They nearly died for you—and for me.” Elena was floating easily, in a standing position now, bobbing like a swimmer trying to keep still.

 

“We did it because we care,” Bonnie said, and she put her arms out again for a hug. “But we never expected to get you back, Elena.” Her eyes filled. “You came back to us. Don’t youknow us?”

 

Elena floated down until she was directly in front of Bonnie.

 

There was still no sign of recognition on her face, but there was something else. There was a kind of limitless benediction and tranquility. Elena radiated a calming peace and an unconditional love that made Bonnie breathe in deeply and shut her eyes. She could feel it like sunshine on her face, like the ocean in her ears. After a moment Bonnie realized she was in danger of crying at the sheer feeling ofgoodness —a word that was almost never used these days. Some things still could be simply, untouchablygood.

 

Elenawas good.

 

And then, with a gentle touch on Bonnie’s shoulder, Elena floated toward Caroline. She held out her arms.

 

Caroline looked flustered. A wave of scarlet swept up her neck. Bonnie saw it, but didn’t understand it. They’d all had a chance to pick up on Elena’s vibes. And Caroline and Elenahad been close friends—until Stefan, their rivalry had been friendly. It wasgood of Elena to pick Caroline to hug first.

 

And then Elena went into the circle of Caroline’s hastily raised arms and just as Caroline began to say “I’ve—” she kissed her full on the mouth. It wasn’t just a peck, either. Elena wrapped her arms around Caroline’s neck and hung on. For long moments Caroline stood deathly still as if in shock. Then she reared back and struggled, at first feebly, and then so violently that Elena was catapulted backward in the air, her eyes wide.

 

Stefan caught her like an infielder going for a pop fly.

 

“What thehell —?” Caroline was scrubbing at her mouth.

 

“Caroline!” Stefan’s voice was filled with fierce protectiveness. “It doesn’t mean anything like what you’re thinking. It’s got nothing to do with sex at all. She’s just identifying you, learning who you are. She can do that now that she’s come back to us.”

 

“Prairie dogs,” Meredith said in the cool, slightly distant voice she often used to bring down the temperature of a room. “Prairie dogs kiss when they meet. It does exactly what you said, Stefan, helps them identify specific individuals….”

 

Caroline was far beyond Meredith’s abilities to cool down, however. Scrubbing her mouth had been a bad idea; she had smeared scarlet lipstick all around it, so that she looked like something out of aBride of Dracula movie. “Are you crazy? What do you think I am? Because some hamsters do it, that makes it okay?” She had flushed a mottled red, from her throat to the roots of her hair.

 

“Prairie dogs. Not hamsters.”

 

“Oh, who gives a—” Caroline broke off, frantically fumbling in her purse until Stefan offered her a box of tissues. He had already dabbed the scarlet smears off Elena’s mouth. Caroline rushed into the small bathroom attached to Stefan’s attic bedroom and slammed the door hard.

 

Bonnie and Meredith caught each other’s eye and let out their breaths simultaneously, convulsing with laughter. Bonnie did a lightning-quick imitation of Caroline’s expression and frantic scrubbing, miming someone using handful after handful of tissues. Meredith gave a reproving shake of her head, but she and Stefan and Matt all had a case of themustn’t-laugh snickers. A lot of it was simply the release of tension—they had seen Elena alive again, after six long months without her—but they couldn’t stop laughing.

 

Or at least they couldn’t until a tissue box sailed out of the bathroom, nearly hitting Bonnie in the head—and they all realized that the slammed door had rebounded—and that there was a mirror in the bathroom. Bonnie caught Caroline’s expression in the mirror and then met her full-on glare.

 

Yep, she’d seen them laughing at her.

 

The door closed again—this time, as if it had been kicked. Bonnie ducked her head and clutched at her short strawberry curls, wishing the floor would open up and swallow her.

 

“I’ll apologize,” she said after a gulp, trying to be adult about the situation. Then she looked up and realized that everyone else was more concerned about Elena, who was clearly upset by this rejection.

 

It’s a good thing we made Caroline sign that oath in blood, Bonnie thought. And it’s a good thing that you-know-who signed it, too. If there was one thing Damon would know about, it was consequences.

 

Even as she was thinking this, she joined the huddle around Elena. Stefan was trying to hold Elena; Elena was trying to go after Caroline; and Matt and Meredith were helping Stefan and telling Elena that it was okay.