Damon gave her a brief nod, his face neutral. “Sleep wel ,” he said.
Then the door was closed behind her, and Elena was alone. Her bed had never looked more comfortable or inviting, and she lay down with a sigh, looking up at the soft light that was beginning to break through the window.
The Vitale Society was gone. Ethan’s plan had been stopped. The campus was safer, and a new day was dawning. Stefan had forgiven her, and Damon didn’t leave, didn’t turn against them.
It was, for now, the best she could hope for. Elena closed her eyes and fel wil ingly asleep at last. Tomorrow would be another day.
Epilogue
Ethan gasped, sucking in a long breath of air, and coughed his way awake, his whole body shaking.
Everything hurt.
Gingerly, he patted himself down, finding that he was sticky with half-dried blood, covered with a score of smal injuries. Reaching up, he felt the already healing indentation in his back with delicate fingers. The stave the girl had thrust into him had brushed his heart, but it hadn’t pierced it.
A half centimeter to one side, and he would have been dead. Real y dead, this time, not undead.
Grabbing hold of a velvet-covered chair with one hand, Ethan pul ed himself to his feet and looked around. His lieutenants in the Vitale Society, his friends, lay dead on the floor. The Salvatore brothers, and the girls who were with them, had escaped.
Nervously, he felt in one pocket and sighed in relief as his hand closed on a smal vial. Pul ing it out, he looked at the thick red liquid within. Stefan Salvatore’s blood. He fished in the same pocket and drew out a cloth bearing a long reddish-brown stain. Damon Salvatore’s blood.
He had what he needed.
Klaus would rise again.
About the Author
L. J. SMITH has written a number of bestsel ing books and series for young adults, including The Vampire Diaries (now a hit TV show), The Secret Circle, The Forbidden Game, Night World, and the #1 New York Times bestsel ing Dark Visions. She is happiest sitting by a crackling fire in a cabin in Point Reyes, California, or walking the beaches that surround that area. She loves to hear from readers and hopes they wil visit her updated website at www.ljanesmith.net.
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Other Works
The Vampire Diaries novels
VOL. I: THE AWAKENING
VOL. II: THE STRUGGLE
VOL. III: THE FURY
VOL. IV: DARK REUNION
THE RETURN VOL. 1: NIGHTFALL
THE RETURN VOL. 2: SHADOW SOULS
THE RETURN VOL. 3: MIDNIGHT
THE HUNTERS VOL. 1: PHANTOM
THE HUNTERS VOL. 2: MOONSONG
Stefan’s Diaries novels
VOL. 1: ORIGINS
VOL. 2: BLOODLUST
VOL. 3: THE CRAVING
VOL. 4: THE RIPPER
VOL. 5: THE ASYLUM
VOL. 6: THE COMPELLED
The Secret Circle novels
THE INITIATION AND THE CAPTIVE PART I
THE CAPTIVE PART II AND THE POWER
THE DIVIDE
Credits
Cover art © 2012 by Carrie Schechter
Cover design by Tom Forget
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
