But since Chloe’s boyfriend was Ethan? Ethan, the Vitale Society leader, the one who had made Matt feel like he was special, like he could be the best? Since it was Ethan, Matt was just going to have to grit his teeth and ignore that hol ow feeling in his chest. He was going to be strong and keep himself from even thinking about what he wished could have been with Chloe.
There were some lines he just couldn’t cross. Ever.
23
“I don’t know how it got so late,” Elena said for the third time as they hurried down the path by the quad. “Bonnie and Meredith are probably worried about me.”
“They know you’re with me,” Damon said, pacing along unruffled beside her.
“I don’t think they’l find that comforting,” Elena said, and bit her tongue as Damon shot her an expressive look.
“After al the time we’ve spent fighting side by side, they stil don’t trust me?” he said silkily. “I’d be terribly hurt. If I cared what they thought.”
“I don’t mean that they think you’d hurt me,” Elena said.
“Not anymore. Or that you wouldn’t protect me. I guess they worry that you might … might make a pass at me. Or something.”
Damon stopped and looked at her. Then he picked up her hand and held it, running one finger down the inside of her arm, tracing the vein that led from Elena’s wrist to her elbow. “And what do you think?” he asked, smiling gently.
Elena snatched her hand back, glaring at him. “Clearly they have a point,” she said. “Knock it off. Just friends, remember?”
Sighing deeply, Damon started walking again, and Elena hurried to catch up.
“I’m glad you decided to come to the party with me,” she said eventual y. “It’l be fun.” Damon shot her a velvet-black glance through his lashes but said nothing.
It was always fun to be with Damon, Elena thought, listening to the clicking of her own heels and watching her shadow grow and disappear as they walked beneath the streetlights. Or at least, it was always fun when Damon was in a good mood and nothing was trying to kil them, two circumstances she wished coincided more often.
Stefan, sweet, darling Stefan, was the love of her life.
She had no doubts about that. But Damon made her feel breathless and excited, swept up in something bigger than herself. Damon made her feel like she was special.
And he was more easygoing than usual tonight. After Matt left, they’d searched the library some more, and then Damon treated her to chips and soda in the basement vending-machine room. They sat at one of the little tables and talked and laughed. It wasn’t anything fancy or elegant, nothing like the parties he’d escorted her to in the Dark Dimension, but it was comfortable and fun, and when she looked at her phone, she was startled to see that more than an hour had passed.
And now Damon even volunteered to come to a col ege keg party. Maybe he was trying to get along with her friends. Maybe they could real y be friends, once things somehow worked out between Stefan and him.
Elena had reached this point in her musings when she suddenly got the unmistakable creepy-crawly feeling that she was being watched. The little hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
“Damon,” she said softly. “There’s someone watching us.”
Damon’s pupils dilated as he sniffed the air. Elena could tel that he was sending out questing tendrils of Power, searching for an answering surge, for someone focusing on them.
“Nothing,” he said after a moment. He tucked his hand under her arm, pul ing her closer. “It could just be your imagination, princess, but we’l be careful.” The leather of Damon’s jacket was smooth against Elena’s side, and she held tightly to him as they stepped out into the road that divided the campus.
Just across from them, a car that had been idling at the curb gunned its engine. Its headlights blazed on, blinding Elena. Damon’s arms locked around her waist, squeezing the breath out of her.
The car’s tires squealed and it shot toward them. Elena panicked—oh God, oh God, she thought helplessly—and froze. Then she was sailing through the air, Damon holding her so tightly that it hurt.
When they hit the grass on the other side of the road, Damon paused for a moment, adjusting his grip on Elena, and Elena peered back at the car, which had passed where they were standing a moment before and skidded back around in a U-turn. She couldn’t make out anything, not what kind of car it was nor anything about the driver; behind the bright lights, it was just a hulking dark shape.
A hulking dark shape that was veering onto the grass and coming back after them. Damon swore and yanked her onward, running rather than flying now, Elena’s feet barely touching the ground. Her heart was pounding. She could tel Damon was hampered from using his ful speed by keeping Elena close. They dodged around the corner of a building and leaned against its wal , surrounded by bushes.
The car hurtled by, then turned, its wheels leaving long skid marks, and lumbered back to the road.
“We lost him,” Elena whispered, panting.
“Annoy anyone lately, princess?” Damon asked, his eyes sharp.
“I should be asking you that,” Elena retorted. Then she wrapped her arms around herself. She was so cold suddenly. “Do you think it could have been because of the Vitale Society?” she asked, her voice quavering.
“Something about them and my parents?”
“We don’t know who or what could have been on the other side of that trapdoor,” Damon replied somberly. “Or maybe Matt…”
“Not Matt,” Elena said firmly. “Matt would never hurt me.” Damon nodded. “That’s true. He’s ridiculously
