The Return: Shadow Souls

Her mind exploded.

The rest of her Power went on circling, without causing any pain. Each new breath she drew added more Power to it, but it simply circulated through her bloodstream, not increasing her aura, but increasing the Power that was inside her. After two or three more quick breaths she realized that she was doing it effortlessly.

Now Elena’s Power wasn’t simply sliding around smoothly inside her, looking from the outside like any other human’s. It was also filling several burst swollen nodes inside her and where it did that, it changed things.

She realized that she was looking at Damon with round eyes. He might have told her about how this would feel, rather than letting her go into it blind.

You really are a total bastard, aren’t you? Elena thought, and, amazingly, she could feel Damon receive the thought, and could feel his automatic response, which was pleased agreement, rather than otherwise.

Then Elena forgot about him in the dawning of a new understanding. She was realizing that she could keep circulating her Power inside her, and even build it higher and higher, getting ready for a truly explosive burst, and show nothing of what it was doing on the surface.

And as for the nodes…

Elena looked around her at what a few minutes ago had been barren wilderness. It was like taking bullets of light through both her eyes. She was dazzled; she was enthralled. Colors seemed to come to life in a painful glory. She felt that she could see much farther than she ever had, on and on into the desert, and at the same time, she could distinguish Damon’s pupils from his irises.

Why, they’re both black, but different shades of black, she thought. Of course, they go together — Damon would never have irises that didn’t complement his pupils. But the irises are more velvety, where his pupils are more silky and shiny. And yet it’s a velvet that can hold light inside it — almost like the night sky with stars — like those kitsune star balls that Meredith told me about.

Right now those pupils were wide and set unyieldingly on her face, as if Damon didn’t want to miss a moment of her reaction. Suddenly, the corner of his lip quirked in a faint smile.

“You did it. You learned to channel your Power to your eyes.” He spoke in a bare whisper that she could never have detected before.

“And to my ears,” she whispered back, listening to the amazing symphony of tiny sounds around her. High in the air, a bat squeaked on a frequency too high for any ordinary human ear to notice. As for the fall of grains of sand around her, they formed something like a tiny concerto as they struck rock and bounced with a tiny ping before falling to the ground below.

This is amazing, she told Damon, hearing the smugness in her own telepathic voice. And I can talk to you this way any time now? She would have to watch out for that — telepathy threatened to reveal more than she might want to send to a recipient.

It’s best to be careful, Damon agreed, confirming her suspicions. She’d sent more than she’d meant to.

But Damon — can Bonnie do this, too? Should I try to show her?

“Who knows?” Damon replied aloud, making Elena wince. “Teaching humans how to use Power isn’t exactly my forte.”

And what about my different Wings Powers? Will I be able to control them, now?

“About those I have absolutely no idea. I’ve never seen anything like them.” Damon looked thoughtful for a moment and then shook his head. “I think you’d need someone with more experience than I have to learn to control those.” Before Elena could say anything else, he added, “We’d better get back to the others. We’re almost at the Gate.”

“And I suppose I shouldn’t be using telepathy then.”

“Well, it is a rather obvious giveaway—”

“But you’ll teach me later, won’t you? As much as you know about controlling Power?”

“Maybe your boyfriend should be doing that,” Damon said almost roughly.

He’s afraid, Elena thought, trying to keep her thoughts hidden under a wall of white noise so that Damon wouldn’t pick them up. He’s just as afraid that he’ll reveal too much to me as I am afraid of him.

14

“All right,” Damon said as he and Elena reached Bonnie and Meredith. “Now comes the hard part.”

Meredith looked up at him. “Now comes…?”

“Yes. The really hard part.” Damon had finally unzipped his mysterious black leather bag. “Look,” he said in a bare murmur, “this is the actual Gate that we have to get through. And while we’re doing it, you can have all the hysterics you want because you’re supposed to be captives.” He pulled out a number of pieces of rope.

Elena, Meredith, and Bonnie had drawn together in an automatic show of velociraptor sisterhood.

“What,” Meredith said slowly, as if to give Damon the final benefit of some lingering doubt, “are those ropes for?”

Damon put his head to one side in an oh-come-on gesture. “They’re for tying your hands.”

“For what?”

Elena was amazed. She had never seen Meredith so obviously angry. She herself couldn’t even get a word in. Meredith had walked up and was looking at Damon from a distance of about four inches.

And her eyes are gray! some distant part of Elena’s mind exclaimed in astonishment. Deep, deep, deep, clear gray gray. All this time I’ve thought they were brown, but they’re not.

Meanwhile Damon was looking faintly alarmed at Meredith’s expression. A T. rex would have looked alarmed at Meredith’s expression, Elena thought.

“And you expect us to walk around with our hands tied up? While you do what?”

“While I act as your master,” Damon said, suddenly rallying with a glorious smile that was gone almost before it was there. “The three of you are my slaves.”

There was a long, long silence.

Elena waved the entire pile of objects away with a gesture. “We won’t do that,” she said simply. “We won’t. There has to be some other way—”

“Do you want to rescue Stefan or not?” Damon demanded suddenly. There was a searing heat in the dark eyes he had fixed on Elena.

“Of course I do!” Elena flashed back, feeling heat in her cheeks. “But not as a slave, dragged along behind you!”

“That’s the only way humans get into the Dark Dimension,” Damon said flatly. “Tied or chained, as a vampire’s or kitsune’s or demon’s property.”

Meredith was shaking her head. “You never told us—”

“I told you that you wouldn’t like the way in!”

Even while answering Meredith, Damon’s eyes never left Elena. Underneath his outward coldness, he seemed to be pleading with her to understand, she thought. In the old days, she thought, he’d have just lounged against a wall and raised his eyebrows and said, “Fine; I didn’t want to go anyway. Who’s for a picnic?”

But Damon did want them to go, Elena realized. He was desperate for them to go. He just didn’t know any honest way of conveying that. The only way he knew was to—

“You have to make us a promise, Damon,” she said, looking him directly in the eyes. “And it has to be before we make the decision to go or not.”

She could see the relief in his eyes, even if to the other girls it might seem as if his face was perfectly cold and impassive. She knew he was glad she wasn’t saying that her previous decision was final, and that was that. “What promise?” Damon asked.

“You have to swear — to give your word — that no matter what we decide now or in the Dark Dimension, you won’t try to Influence us. You won’t put us to sleep by mind control, or nudge us to do what you want. You won’t use any vampire tricks on our minds.”

Damon wouldn’t be Damon if he didn’t argue. “But, look, suppose the time comes when you want me to do