The Return: Shadow Souls

“It’s learning how to circulate your Power. Blood circulates, yes? And Power can be circulated, too. Even humans have known that for centuries, whether they call it life-force or chi or ki. As it is, you’re simply dissipating your Power into the air. That’s an aura. But if you learn to circulate it, you can build it up for some really big release, and you can be more inconspicuous as well.”

Elena was clearly fascinated. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Because I’m stupid, Damon thought. Because to vampires it’s as instinctive as breathing is to you. He lied unblushingly. “It takes a certain level of competence to accomplish.”

“And I can do it now?”

“I think so.” Damon put slight uncertainty in his voice.

Naturally, this made Elena even more determined. “Show me!” she said.

“You mean right now?” He glanced around. “Someone might drive by—”

“We’re off the road. Oh, please, Damon? Please?” Elena looked at Damon with the huge blue eyes that altogether too many males had found irresistible. She touched his arm, trying once more to make some kind of contact, but when he automatically drew away, she continued, “I really do want to learn. You can teach me. Just show me once, and I’ll practice.”

Damon glanced down at his arm, felt his good sense and his will wavering. How does she do that?

“All right.” He sighed. There were at least three or four billion people on this dust mote of a planet that would give anything to be with this warm and eager, yearning Elena Gilbert. The problem was that he happened to be one of them — and that she clearly didn’t give a damn for him.

Of course not. She had dear Stefan. Well, he would see if his princess was still the same when — if — she managed to free Stefan and get out of their destination alive.

Meanwhile, Damon concentrated on keeping his voice, face, and aura all dispassionate. He’d had some practice at that. Only five centuries’ worth, but it added up.

“First I have to find the place,” he told her, hearing the lack of warmth in his voice, the tone that was not merely dispassionate but actually cold.

Elena’s expression didn’t flicker. She could be dispassionate, too. Even her deep blue eyes seemed to have taken on a frosty glint. “All right. Where is it?”

“Near where the heart is, but more to the left. He touched Elena’s sternum, and then moved his fingers to the left.

Elena fought back both tension and a shiver — he could see it. Damon was probing for the place where the flesh became soft over bone, the place most humans assumed their heart was because it was where they could feel their heart beating. It should be right around…here.…

“Now, I’ll run your Power through one or two circulations, and when you can do it by yourself — that’s when you’ll be ready to really conceal your aura.”

“But how will I know?”

“You’ll know, believe me.”

He didn’t want her to ask questions, so he simply held up one hand in front of her — not touching her flesh or even her clothing — and brought her life-force in synchronization with his. There. Now, to set the process off. He knew what it would feel like to Elena: an electric shock, starting at the point where he had first touched her and quickly spreading warmth through her body.

Then, a rapid montage of sensations as he went through a practice rotation or two with her. Up toward him, to her eyes and ears, where she would suddenly find she could see and hear much better, then down her spine and out to her fingertips, while her heartbeat quickened and she felt something like electricity in her palms. Back up her arm and down the side of her body, at which point a tremor would set in. Finally, the energy would sweep down her magnificent leg all the way to her feet, where she would feel it in her soles, curling her toes, before coming back around to where it had started near her heart.

Damon heard Elena gasp faintly when the shock first hit her, and then felt her heartbeat race and her eyelashes flicker as the world suddenly became much lighter to her; her pupils dilating as if she were in love, her body going rigid at the tiny sound of some rodent in the grass — a sound she would never have heard without Power directed to her ears. And so, all around her body, once, and then again, so she could get a feel for the process. Then he let her go.

Elena was panting and exhausted; and he’d been the one expending energy. “I’ll never — be able — to do that alone,” she gasped.

“Yes, you will, in time and with practice. And when you can do it, you’ll be able to control all your Power.”

“If you…say so.” Elena’s eyes were shut now, her lashes dark crescents on her cheeks. It was clear that she’d been pushed to her limit. Damon felt the temptation to draw her to him, but suppressed it. Elena had made it clear that she didn’t want him embracing her.

I wonder just how many boys she didn’t push away, Damon thought abruptly, bitterly. That surprised him a little, the bitterness. Why should he care how many boys had handled Elena? When he made her his Princess of Darkness, they would both go hunting for human prey — sometimes together, sometimes alone. He wouldn’t be jealous of her then. Why should he care how many romantic encounters she’d had now?

But he found that he was bitter, bitter and angry enough that he answered without warmth, “I do say you will. Just practice doing it alone.”

In the car, Damon managed to stay annoyed with Elena. This was difficult, as she was a perfect traveling companion. She didn’t chatter, didn’t try to hum or — thank fortune — sing along with the radio, didn’t chew gum or smoke, didn’t backseat drive, didn’t need too many rest stops, and never asked “Are we there yet?”

As a matter of fact, it was difficult for anyone, male or female, to stay annoyed at Elena Gilbert for any length of time. You couldn’t say she was too exuberant, like Bonnie, or too serene, like Meredith. Elena was just sweet enough to offset her bright, active, ever-scheming mind. She was just compassionate enough to make up for her self-confessed egotism, and just skewed enough to ensure that no one would ever call her normal. She was intensely loyal to her friends and just forgiving enough that she herself considered almost no one an enemy — kitsune and Old Ones of the vampire kind excepted. She was honest and frank and loving, and of course she had a dark streak in her that her friends simply called wild, but that Damon recognized for what it really was. It compensated for the naive, soft, ingenuous side of her nature. Damon was very sure that he didn’t need any of those qualities in her, especially right now.

Oh, yes…and Elena Gilbert was just gorgeous enough to make any of her negative characteristics completely irrelevant.

But Damon was determined to be annoyed and he was strong-willed enough that he could usually choose his mood and stick to it, appropriate or not. He ignored all of Elena’s attempts at conversation, and eventually she gave up trying to make them. He kept his mind pinned to the dozens of boys and men whom the exquisite girl beside him must have bedded. He knew that Elena, Caroline, and Meredith had been the “senior” members of the quartet when they had all been friends, while little Bonnie had been the youngest and had been considered a bit too naive to be fully initiated.

So why was he with Elena now? he found himself asking sourly, wondering for just the slightest second if Shinichi was manipulating him as well as taking his memories.

Did Stefan ever worry about her past — especially with an old boyfriend — Mutt — still hanging around, willing to give his very life for her? Stefan must not, or he’d have put a stop — no, how could Stefan put a stop to anything Elena wanted to do? Damon had seen the clash of their wills, even when Elena had been a child mentally just after returning from the afterlife. When it came to Stefan and Elena’s relationship, Elena was definitely in control. As humans said: She wore the trousers in the family.

Well, soon enough she could see how she liked wearing harem trousers, Damon thought, laughing silently, although his mood was darker than ever. The sky over the car darkened further in response, and wind ripped summer leaves from branches before their time. Cat’s paws of rain dotted the windshield, and then came the flash of lightning and the echoing sound of thunder.