Jasper bent down and grabbed a stake from the ground.
“C’mon, boy. Earn your keep,” he said, using the side of the stake to nudge me forward. I gasped. Pain shot up and down my skin, as if I’d been touched by a hot poker.
Damon laughed again.
The flap opened, and Callie poked her head through the tent.
I looked wildly over at her. “Callie, you shouldn’t be here!”
Both she and Damon looked at me quizzically. A sickening feeling spread through my limbs. The vervain, the heat, the stakes . . .
Just then, with a simple twist from his chains, Damon broke free and lunged toward Callie. Callie shrieked, and Jasper dove to shield her.
Time seemed to stop, and without thinking, I hurled my stake through Damon’s belly. He fell backward, gasping, blood spurting from the wound.
“ I said, please! ” I hissed wildly, in a voice only Damon could hear. Callie cowered near the flap, her eyes wide as she glanced between me and Damon.
Damon looked up, wheezing as he pulled the stake from his stomach. Then I heard the faintest, hoarse whisper over the shouts of Jasper and the trainers as they moved to re-chain Damon.
“Then please know that your hell hasn’t even yet begun, brother.”
I ran down to the lake, the sound of the stake ripping through Damon’s flesh echoing in my mind. Once I got to the shore, I stared at my reflection in the water. My hazel eyes stared back, my lips pressed into a thin line. With an angry jerk, I threw a pebble into the pond, shattering my image into a thousand little ripples.
Part of me wanted to jump in the lake, swim to the other side, and never come back. Damn Damon to hell if death was what he wanted so much. But no matter how much I wished he’d die, I couldn’t kill him. Despite everything, we were brothers, and I wanted— needed —to do everything in my power to save him. After all, blood was thicker than water. I laughed bitterly as I thought of the deeper meanings of the metaphor. Blood was also more complicated, more destructive, and more heartbreaking than water.
I sank into the brackish sand at the water’s edge and lay back with a sigh, letting the wan November sun cascade over me. I don’t know how long I remained like that before I felt muffled footfalls vibrate the ground beneath me.
I sighed. I don’t know what I’d hoped to find, coming down to the lake, but my peace and quiet was ruined when Callie sat down next to me.
“Everything okay?” she asked, throwing a small rock into the lake with a plunk. She didn’t turn to face me.
“I just . . . could you leave me alone?” I muttered. “Please.”
“No.”
I sat up and looked her square in the face. “Why not?”
Callie pursed her lips, her forehead crinkling as though she were working through a complicated problem. Then, hesitantly, she reached out with her tiny pinky finger and traced the outline of my lapis lazuli ring.
“The monster has a ring like this,” she said.
I jerked my hand away in horror. How could I have forgotten about our rings?
Callie cleared her throat. “Is the vampire, is he your . . . brother?”
My blood ran cold, and I jumped to my feet.
“No, Stefan! Stay.” Callie’s green eyes were wide, her cheeks flushed. “Please. Just stay. I know what you are, and I’m not afraid.”
I took a step back, my breath coming in rapid gasps. My mind spun, and I felt nauseated all over again. “How can you know what I am and not fear me?”
“You’re not a monster,” she said simply. She rose to her feet as well.
For a moment, we just stood there, not speaking, barely breathing. A duck cut an arc through the lake. A horse whinnied in the distance. And the scent of pine tickled my nose. I noticed then that Callie had removed all the vervain from her hair.
“How can you say that?” I asked. “I could kill you in an instant.”
“I know.” She looked into my eyes as if searching for something. My soul, perhaps. “So why haven’t you? Why don’t you now?”
“Because I like you,” I said, surprising myself with the words.
A whisper of a smile flitted across her lips. “I like you too.”
“Are you sure about that?” I took her wrists in mine and she pulled away a little. “Because when I touch you, I don’t know whether I want to kiss you or . . . or . . .”
“Kiss me,” she said breathlessly. “Don’t think about the alternative.”
“I can’t. If I do, it won’t stop there.”
Callie moved closer to me. “But you saved me. When your . . . brother lunged for me, you staked him. You staked your own brother. For me.”
“Just in the stomach, not the heart,” I pointed out.
“Still.” She placed her hand on my chest, right over where my heart used to be. I stiffened, trying not to inhale the scent of her.
Before I could react, she pulled a needle out of her pocket and punctured her index finger. I froze.
Blood.
Just one drop of it, like a single ruby, balanced there on the tip of her finger.
God, Callie’s blood. It smelled like cedarwood and the sweetest wine. My face began to sweat, and my breathing became heavy. My senses sharpened, and my fangs throbbed. Fear flashed in Callie’s eyes and radiated off her body.
And just like that, my fangs retracted. I fell backward, panting.
“See, you’re not a monster,” she said firmly. “Not like he is.”
The wind picked up, causing Callie’s hair to ripple out behind her like the waves in the lake. She shivered, and I stood up, pulling her close.
“Maybe,” I whispered into her ear, drinking in the heady scent of her, my mouth inches from her neck. I couldn’t bear to tell her about all the lives I’d taken, how Damon thought that I was the monster. “But he’s my brother. And it’s my fault he’s in there.”
“Do you want me to help you free him?” she said heavily, as if she’d known all along that our conversation would come to this.
“Yes,” I said simply.
Callie chewed on her lip as she played with a strand of her hair, wrapping it on her finger, over and over again.
“But you don’t have to.” I avoided her eyes, so I knew I wasn’t compelling her.
She stared at me carefully, as if my face were a cipher she could decode.
“In two days,” she said, “meet me at midnight. That’s when Damon will be moved to our attic.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“Thank you.” I cupped her cheeks with my hands and leaned forward, pressing my forehead to hers. And then I kissed her.
As we stood, palm to palm, chest to chest, I could have sworn I felt my heart come back to life, beating in perfect sync with hers.
When I got back to the vampire house, the moon was hanging high in the sky. Lexi was sprawled on the sofa, her eyes closed as she listened to Hugo play the piano. The piano was so out of tune that the music he pounded out, which was supposed to be a rousing revolutionary march, sounded more like a funeral dirge. Still, I couldn’t help but pull Lexi up, whirling her around in an impromptu dance.
“You’re late,” Lexi said, ducking out of the twirl. “Or were you on another date ?”
