honorable, your Matt.” He gave her a little wry sideways smile. “And he loves you. Everyone loves you, Elena.” He shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders.
“One thing’s certain, though. If the driver of that car thought I was human before, he knows differently now.” Elena pul ed the jacket more tightly around herself. “You saved me,” she said in a tiny voice. “Thank you.” Damon’s eyes were soft as he put his arms around her.
“I wil always save you, Elena,” he promised. “Don’t you know that by now?” His pupils dilated, and he pul ed her closer. “I can’t lose you,” he murmured.
Elena felt like she was fal ing. The world was being swal owed up in Damon’s midnight eyes, and she was being drawn along with it, into the darkness. A tiny part of her said no, but despite it she leaned toward him and met his mouth with hers.
Stefan tapped his fingers against the wal behind him, looked around at al the people jammed too close together: talking, laughing, arguing, drinking, dancing. His skin was crawling with anxiety. Where was she? Matt said he’d seen her at the library more than an hour ago, that she had been planning on coming to the party then.
Making up his mind, Stefan began to push his way toward the exit. Maybe Elena didn’t want him in contact with her right now, but people were dying and disappearing. It would be worth it to have her angry with him, as long as he knew that she was okay.
He passed Meredith, deep in conversation with her friend, and said, “I’m going to find Elena.” He had the quick impression of her faltering, starting to reach out a hand to stop him, but he left her behind. He pushed open the door and stepped out into the cool night air. Campus security was stil by the door checking IDs, but they let him pass without comment, only interested in people trying to come into the party.
Outside, the wind was rushing through the trees overhead and a crescent moon rode high and white above the buildings around him. Stefan sent his Power out around him, feeling for the distinct traces of Elena.
He couldn’t sense anything, not yet. There were too many people too close together here, and Stefan could only feel the tangled traces of thousands of humans, their emotions and life force mixing together in one great underlying buzz from which it was impossible for him, at this distance, to pick out any particular individual, even one as singular as Elena.
If he had fed on human blood recently, it would have been easier. Stefan couldn’t help thinking longingly of the way that Power had surged through him when he drank regularly from his friends. But that was when Fel ’s Church needed his best defense against the kitsune. He wouldn’t drink human blood just for pleasure or convenience.
Stefan started walking quickly across the quad, stil sending out questing fingers of Power around and ahead of himself. If he couldn’t locate Elena that way, he would head for where she was last seen. He hoped that, as he got closer to the library, his Power would pick up some hint of her.
His whole body was thrumming anxiously. What if Elena had been attacked, what if she mysteriously vanished and never returned, leaving him with this strange distance as their last memory of each other? Stefan walked faster.
He was halfway to the library when the distinctive sense of Elena hit him like a punch. Somewhere nearby.
He scanned left and right and then he saw her. A terrible pain shot through his chest, as if he could actual y feel his heart breaking. She was kissing Damon. They were half hidden in the shadows, but their light skin and Elena’s blond hair shone. They were focused only on each other, so much so that, despite his Power, Damon wasn’t aware of Stefan’s presence, not even when he walked right up to them.
“Is this why you wanted to take some time apart, Elena?” Stefan asked, his voice sounding hol ow and distant. Final y noticing him, they broke away from each other, Elena’s face pale with shock.
“Stefan,” she said. “Please, Stefan, no, it’s not what it looks like.” She reached out a hand toward him, then drew it back uncertainly.
Everything seemed so far away to Stefan; he was aware that he was shaking, his mouth was dry, but it felt almost as if he was watching someone else in pain. “I can’t do this,” he said. “Not again. If I fight for you, I’l just end up destroying us al . Just like with Katherine.” Elena was shaking her head back and forth, her hands stretched out toward him imploringly again. “Please, Stefan,” she said.
“I can’t,” Stefan said again, backing away, his voice thin and desperate.
Then, for the first time, he looked at Damon, and a redhot rage slammed into him, overriding the numb distance instantly. “Al you do is take,” Stefan told him bitterly. “This is the last time. We’re not brothers anymore.” Damon’s face opened for a split second in dismay, his eyes widening, as if he was about to speak, and then he hardened again, his mouth twisting scornful y, and he jerked his head at Stefan. Very well, that gesture indicated, then get lost.
Stefan stumbled backward, and then he turned and ran, moving with al the supernatural grace and speed at his command, leaving them far behind even as Elena screamed, “Stefan!”
24
Giggling, Bonnie tripped on her way down the stairs, her foot coming right out of her high-heeled shoe.
“Here you go, Cinderel a,” Zander said, picking up the shoe and kneeling in front of her. He helped slip her foot back into it, his fingers warm and steady against her instep.
Bonnie gave a mock curtsy, muffling her laughter. “Thank you, m’lord,” she said flirtatiously.
She felt fabulous, so sil y and happy. It was almost as if she was drunk, but she’d only had a few sips of beer. No, she was drunk. Drunk on Zander, on his kisses, his gentle hands, and his big blue eyes. She took his hand, and he smiled down at her, that long slow smile, and Bonnie just absolutely quivered.
“Seems like the party’s wrapping up,” she said, as they hit the first floor. It was real y getting late, almost two o’clock. There were only a few groups of hard-core partiers left: a bunch of frat boys by the keg, some theater- department girls dancing with great wide swoops of their arms, a couple sitting hand in hand at the bottom of the stairs in deep conversation. Meredith, Stefan, Samantha, and Matt had disappeared, and if Elena had ever shown up, she had left, too. Zander’s friends had gone, or been kicked out.
“Good-bye, good-bye,” Bonnie caroled to the few people who remained. She hadn’t real y gotten a chance to talk to any of them, but they al looked perfectly nice. Maybe next time she went to a party, she’d stay longer and
