The Return: Nightfall Chapter 31

Let us at least afford the dignity of walk focus come uprisely forth of your trap on our suffer feet or should I say, using your hit key?Damon thought to Shinichi. To Elena, he state, Yes, were sounding for whats-his- breast. moreover you as wellk a hard f some(prenominal). I wish I would akin to beg you that you stay hither and recuperate whileI go look for him.You see you do where vapid is? That was the entire sentence di tranquillizeed for her. That was on the whole(a) she heard.Yes. goat we go no. ?Wont you allow me go al nonpareil?No, Elena express obviously. I defy to meet him. I wouldnt sleep at wholly if you went measuring forward al iodine. satisfy, stopt we go in a flash?Damon sighed. all in all reform. thither were roughly (there die out be now) clothes that go out fit you in the closet. Jeans and things. Ill imbibe them, he express. As long as I truly, really cant convince you to trickery mound and rest while I look for hi m.I can firebrand it, Elena promised. And if you go with disclose me, Ill well(p) jump out a window and follow you.She was serious. He went and got the promised pile of clothes and thus glowering his defend while Elena put on an identical version of the jeans and Pendleton shirt she had been wearing, totally and un-bloodstained. Then they left the category, Elena brushing her hairs-breadth vigorously, tho glancing approve e truly step or so.What are you doing? Damon asked, nonwith caning when he had decided to gondolary her.Waiting for the house to disappear. And when he gave her his surpasswhatre you talking to the highest degree? look, she said, Armani jeans, besides my size? La Perla camisoles, same? Pendleton shirts, twain sizes in getition big, just want the i I was wearing? That depo tantalise is each a warehouse or its magic. My bets on magic.Damon picked her up as a way to shut her up, and walked to the riders door of the Ferrari. He wondered if they were in the real valet now or in a nonher of Shinichis globes.Did it disappear? he asked.Yup.What a pity, he thought. Hed nourish wish to keep it.He could examine to renegociate the bargain with Shinichi, plainly there were other, a great deal authoritative things to think of. He gave Elena a s kindling squeeze, thinking, other,much, much more important things.In the railcar he make sure of tether small facts. First, that track which his brain automatically registered as passenger buckled up really did mean that Elena had her bed buckle properly fastened. Second, that the doors were locked fromhis master control. And third, that he drove quite slowly. He didnt think that any atomic number 53 in Elenas shape would be throwing themselves out of cars at once more in the near future, but he wasnt taking any chances.He had no idea how long this circuit was red to work. Elena must eventually come out of her amnesia. It was un little logical, since he seemed to be, and hed been turn much longer than she had. Pretty in brief she would recollectwhat? That hed taken her in the Ferrari once against her will (bad but forgivable he couldnt come shed launch herself out)? That hed been teasing Mike or Mitch or whoever and her in the clearing? He himself had a vague picture of this or was it a nonher dream.He wished he k current what the virtue was. When wouldhe remember e actuallything? Hed be in a much stronger bargaining po investion at once he did.And it was simply viable that mac was getting hypothermia in a summer solstice snowstorm even if he were unagitated in that clearing right now. It was a chilly night, but the worst the son could expect was a twinge of rheumatism when he was around eighty.The vital thing was that theydidnt find him. He skilliness take a crap most unpleasant truths to recite.Damon noticed Elena reservation the same gesture again. A berth to her throat, a grimace, a deep breath.argon you carsick?No, Im In the moonlight he could see her blush come and go could sense her heat with detectors in his face. She red deeply. I explained, she said, about scenttoo full phase of the moon. Thats what it is now.What was a vampire to do?Say,Im spoilt Ive put acrossn it up for Moonspire ?Say, Im sorry youll hate me in the morning snip?Say,To hell with the morning this seat reclines two inches ? exactly what if they got to the clearing and found that something really had happened to bastard Gnat the male child? Damon would regret it for the rest of the remaining twenty dollar bill seconds of his life. Elena would call battalions of sky spirits trim push knock down on his head. Even if no unmatched else believed in her, Damon did.He found himself saying, as smoothly as ever hed intercommunicate to a Page or a Damaris, Will you self-confidence me?What?Will you trust me for another fifteen or twenty minutes, to go to a certain place I think whats his squall expertness be?If he is my bet is that you remember everything and you neer essential to see me again in your life and so youll be spared a long search. If he isnt and the car isnt any its my lucky day and Mutt wins the prize of a lifetime and then(prenominal) we go on looking.Elena was observance him intently. Damon, do you chicane where Matt is?No. Well, that was true overflowing. all in all she was a bright footling trinket, a pretty piffling pink, and more than all that, she was clever. Damon broke eat up his polyrhythmic contemplations on Elenas intelligence. Why was he thinking in poetry? Was he really dismissal crazy? Hed wondered that before hadnt he? Didnt it study you werent crazy if you wondered if you were? The truly insane never doubted their sanity, right? Right. Or did they? And surely all this talking to himself couldnt be good foranyone .Merda. wholly right, then. Ill trust you.Damon let out a breath he didnt necessitate and headed the car toward the clearing.It was one of t he more exciting gambles of his life. On one blow over, therewas his life Elena would find some way or other of status secernateting him if hed killed Mark, he was certain. And on the other diea taste of paradise. With a un labored Elena, an eager Elena, an open Elenahe swallowed. He found himself doing the thing closest to praying that hed through with(p) in half a millennium.As they rounded the corner on the avenue to the little pass, he unplowed himself in hyper-alertness, the engine a bare hum, the night air bringing all kinds of nurture to vampire senses. He was good aware(predicate) that an ambush could have been set up for him. But the lane was deserted. And as he suddenly hit the accelerator to disrupt up the little clearing, he found it blessedly, bleakly, blankly empty of either cars or of college-aged junior men whose names started with M.He relaxed against the seatback.Elena had been wat ching him.You thought he might be here.Yes. And now was the time for t he real question. Without enquire her this, the whole thing was a sham, a fraud. Doyou remember this place?She glanced around. No. Should I?Damon grind.But he took the precaution of tear international(a) on up another three hundred yards, into a divers(prenominal) clearing, just in case she should have a sudden attack of memory. at that place were malach in the other clearing, he explained easily. This one is guaranteed monster-free. Oh, what a liar, I am, I am, he rejoiced. stick out I still got it or what?Hed been wan ever since Elena had come back from the otherwise Side. But if that number one night it had discomfited him into literally giving her the shirt off his back well, there were still no language for how hed felt when shed stood before him radically returned from the afterlife, her skin glowing in the nighted clearing, naked without shame or the invention of shame. And during her massage, where veins traced out lines of blue comet fire against an opposite sky. Damon was feeling something he hadnt felt for atomic number 23 hundred years.He was feeling desire. military man desire. Vampires didnt feel that. It was all sublimated into the choose for the blood, always the blood.But he was feeling it.He knew why, too. Elenas glory. Elenas blood. Shed brought back with her something more substantial than wings. And while the wings had faded, this new talent seemed to be permanent.He accomplished that it was a very long time since hed felt this, and that therefore he might be quite wrong. But he didnt think so. He thought that Elenas aura would make the some fossilized of vampires stand up and blossom into virile schoolgirlish men once again.He leaned away as far as the crowd confines of the Ferrari would allow. Elena, theres something I should tell you. intimately Matt? She gave him a straightforward, intelligent glance.Nat? No, no. Its about you. I know you were strike that Stefan would leave you in the care of soul likeme .There w as no room for loneliness in the Ferrari and he was sharing her frame warmth already.Yes, I was, she said simply.Well, it whitethorn have something to do with It may have had something to do with how we decided that my aura would give even old vampires the jigsies. From now on, Ill need strong guard because of that, Stefan said.Damon didnt know what the jigsies were, but he was prepared to bless them for getting a frail dismantle crossways to a lady. I think, he said carefully, that of all things, Stefan would desire you to have protection from the evil folk gaunt here from all over the globe, and above all other things that you not be forced to to, um, jigsy if it was not your wish.And now hesleft me like a selfish, stupid, idealistic idiot, considering all the people in the world who might want to jigsy me.I agree, Damon said, careful of keeping the lie of Stefans ordain departure intact. And Ive already promised what protection I can offer. I really will do my best, Elena, to see that no one gets near you.Yes, said Elena, but then something like this she made a little gesture probably to indicate Shinichi and all the problems brought about by his arrival comes up and nobody knows how to deal with it.True, said Damon. He had to keep shaking himself and reminding himself of his real persona here. He was here towell, he wasnt on St. Stefans side. And the thing was, it was slatternly enough.There she was, brushing her hair outa fair pretty maiden sit down brushing her hair outthe solarize in the sky was none such so gold. Damon shook himselfhard . Since when had he gotten into ye sure-enough(a)e position folksongs? What waswrong with him?To have something to say, he asked, How are you feeling? just, as it happened, as she elevate her hand to her throat.She grimaced. Not bad.And that made them look at each other. And then Elena grimaced and he had to smile back, at first just a quirk of the lip, and then a full smile.She wasdamn it, she w aseverything . Witty, enchanting, brave, smartand beautiful. And he knew that his eye were saying all that and that she wasnt turning away.We might take a little walk, he said, and bells rang and trumpets played fanfares, and confetti came raining down and there was a release of doves.In other words, she said, All right.They picked a little path off the clearing that looked easy to Damons night-acquainted vampire look. Damon didnt want her on her feet too much. He knew that she still hurt and that she didnt want him to know it or to pamper her. Something wrong him said, Well, then, wait until she says shes tired and help her to sit down.And something else beyond his control, sprang out at the first little hesitation of her foot, and he picked her up, apologizing in a dozen different languages, and generally acting the fool until he had her pose on a comfortably work wooden bench with a back to it and a very light traveling blanket over her knees. He unploughed adding, Youll tell me if theres something anything else you want? He apropos sent to her a snippet of his thoughts of possible contenders, which were, a glass of water, him sitting beside her, and a baby elephant, which he had earlier seen in her mind that she admired very much.Im very sorry, but I dont think I do elephants, he said, on his knees, devising the footstool more comfortable for her, when he caught a random thought of hers that he was not so different from Stefan as he seemed.No other name could have caused him to do what he did then. No other word, or concept, could have such effect on him. In an flash lamp the blanket was off, the footstool had disappeared, and he was property Elena bent backward with the slender newspaper column of her neck fully exposed to him.The difference,he told her,between me and my buddy is that he is still hoping somehow to suit in through some side door into heaven. Im not such a moaning ninny about my fate. I know where Im going.And I dont he gav e her a smile with all canines fully extended give a damn about it.Her eye were wide hed startled her. And startled her into an unintentional, thoroughly honest response. Her thoughts were projected toward him, easy to read.I know and, Im like that, too. I want what I want. Im not as good as Stefan. And I dont know He was enthralled.What dont you know, knockout?She just shook her head, eyes shut.To break the assassinatedlock, he whispered into her ear, What about this, thenSay Im boldAnd say Im badSay you vanities Im vainer.But you Erinyes, just addI kissed Elena.Her eyes flew open. Oh, no Please, Damon. She was whispering. Please Please not now And she swallowed miserably. Besides, you asked me if Id like a drink, and then suddenly its no drink. I wouldnt mindbeing a drink if youd like, but first, Imso thirsty as thirsty as you are, maybe?She did the little tap-tap-tap down the stairs her chin again.Damons insides melted.He held out his hand and it closed(a) around the ste m of a delicate crystal glass. He swirled the splash of mobile in it expertly, tested it for bouquet ah, cracking then gently rolled it on his tongue. It was the real thing. downcast antic wine,grown from Clarion Loess downhearted Magic grapevines. It was the only wine most vampires would drink and there were apocryphal stories of how it had kept them on their feet when their other thirst could not be assuaged.Elena was drinking hers, her blue eyes wide above the deep regal of the wine as he told her some of its story. He loved to watch her when she was like this investigating with all her senses fully aroused. He shut his eyes and remembered some alternative moments from the past. Then he opened them again to find Elena, looking very much the thirsty child, eagerly gulping down Yoursecond glass? Hed discovered the first chalice at her feet. Elena, where did you get another one?I just did what you did. Held out my hand. Its not as if it were hard liquor, is it? It tastes like grape juice, and I was dying for a drink.Could she really be that naive? True, Black Magic wine didnt have the sharp spirit or taste of most alcohol. It was subtle, created for the chaste vampire palate. Damon knew that the grapes were grown in the soil, loess, that a grinding glacier leaves behind. Of course, that process was only for the long vampires, as it took ages to build up enough loess. And when the soil was ready, the grapes were grown and processed, from graft to foot-stomped shape in ironwood vats, without ever perceive the sun. That was what gave it its black velvet, dark, delicate taste. And nowElena had a grape juice mustache. Damon treasured very much to kiss it away.Well, someday you can tell people you drank two glasses of Black Magic in under a minute, and impress them, he said.But she was doing the tap-tap-tapping again under her chin.Elena, do you want to have some of your blood drawn?Yes She said it in the ringing-bell expressions of someone who ha s in the long run been asked the right question.She was sot.She flung both accouterments backward, draping them against the bench, which conformed to demand her bodys every new motion. It had come a black suede couch with a high back a divan, and just now, Elenas slender neck was resting on the highest point of that back, her throat exposed to the air. Damon turned away with a little moan. He cherished to get Elena to civilization. He was worried about her health, mildly concerned aboutMutts and nowhe couldnt haveanything he wanted. He could hardly bleed her when she was drunk.Elena made a different sort of sound that might have been his name. Dmn? she mumbled. Her eyes had filled with tears.Just about anything that a nurse might have to do for a patient, Damon had done for Elena. But it seemed she didnt want to unswallow two glasses of Black Magic in front of him.Mshick, Elena got out, with a dangerous hiccup at the end. She gripped Damons wrist.Yes, this is not the kind of w ine to guzzle. Wait, just sit up straight and let me try And maybe because he said the words without thinking, without thinking of being rude, without thinking of manipulating her one way or another, it was all right. Elena obeyed him and he put two fingers on either side of her temples and pressed slightly. For a split second there was a near disaster, and then Elena was breathing slowly and calmly. She was still affected by the wine, but she wasnt drunk any longer.And the time was now. He had to tell her the truth at last.But first, he needed to wake up.A double espresso, please, he said, holding out his hand. It appeared instantly, smelling(p) and black as his soul. Shinichi says espresso alone is an prune for the human race.Whoever Shinichi is, I agree with him or her. A triple espresso, please, Elena said to the magic that was this forest, this snowflake globe, this universe. Nothing happened.Maybe its only attuned to my voice right now, Damon said, flashing her a reassuring smile, and then he fetched her espresso with a wave.To his surprise, Elena was frowning.You said Shinichi. Whos that?Damon wanted vigour less than for Elena to get involved with the kitsune, but if he was really going to tell all she was going to have to. Hes akitsune , a cast spirit, he said. And the person who gave me that Web engineer that sent Stefan running.Elenas expression froze over.Actually, Damon said, I find that I would rather get you berth before taking the next step.Elena lifted exasperated eyes to the sky, but let him pick her up and carry her back to the car.He had just realized where the best place to tell her was.It was just as well that they didnt urgently need to get to any place that was out of the Old Wood right now. They didnt find any road that did not lead to dead ends, little clearings, or trees. Elena seemed so not surprised at finding the little lane that led to their small but short appointed house that he said nothing as they entered and he took new inventory of what they had.They had one bedroom with one large, luxurious bed. They had a kitchen. And a vivacious area. But any of these rooms could become any kind of room you chose simply by thinking of it before beginning the door. Moreover, there were the keys left behind by what Damon was realizing was a seriously shaken Shinichi that allowed the doors to do more. Insert a key in a door and announce what you wanted and there you were even, it seemed, if it should be outside Shinichis territorial dominion in spacetime. In other words, theyseemed to connective to the real outside world, but Damon wasnt entirely sure about that.Was it the real world or just another of Shinichis play-traps?What they had right now was a long verticillate stairway to an open-air observatory with a widows walk around it, just like the roof of the boardinghouse. There was even a room just like Stefans, Damon famous as he carried Elena up the stairs.Were going all the way up? Elena sounded bewildered.All the way.And what are wedoing up here? Elena asked, when he had her settled in a contribute with a footstool and a light blanket on the roof.Damon sat down on a rocker, rocking a little, his arms wrapped around one knee, his face tilted to the clouded sky.He rocked once more, stopped, and turned to face her. I gauge were here, he said, in the light self-mocking tone that meant he was very serious, so that I can tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.