The Return: Shadow Souls

“Is it that you hit your head? You know: news travels fast here. I heard you arrived with a harem—”

“That’s true! He did!” Damon’s ears caught a bare whisper of sound at the edge of the street where he’d been ambushed. “If we take the girls hostage — torture them —”

Sage’s eyes met Damon’s briefly. Clearly, he had heard the whisper as well. “Saber,” he said to the dog. “Just the speaker.” He jerked his head, once, in the direction of the whisper.

Instantly, the black dog jumped forward, and faster than it took for

Damon to describe it in his own mind, had sunk his teeth into the throat of the whisperer, flipped him over once, causing a distinctive crack, and was bounding back, dragging the body between his legs.

The words: Je vous ai informe au sujet de ceci! blasted by on a surge of Power that made Damon wince. And Damon thought, yes, he did tell them before — but not what the consequences would be.

Laissez lui et ses amis dans la paix! Meanwhile, Damon was slowly getting up, only too glad to accept Sage’s protection for himself and his friends.

“Well that certainly should have done it,” he said. “Why not come back and have a friendly drink with me?”

Sage peered at him as if he’d gone mad. “You know the answer to that is no.”

“Why not?”

“I told you: no.”

“That’s not a reason.”

“The reason I will not come back for a friendly drink…mon ange…is that we are not friends.”

“We pulled some pretty scams together.”

“Il y a longtemps.” Abruptly, Sage took one of Damon’s hands. There was a deep and bloody scratch on it, which Damon hadn’t got around to healing. Under Sage’s gaze it closed, the flesh turned pink, and it healed.

Damon let Sage continue to hold the hand for a moment, and then, not ungently, retrieved it.

“Not such a very long time ago,” he said.

“Away from you?” A sarcastic smile formed on Sage’s lips. “We count time very differently, you and I, mon petit tyran.”

Damon was full of befuddled cheer. “What’s one drink?”

“Along with your harem?”

Damon tried to picture Meredith and Sage together. His mind balked. “But you’ve made yourself responsible for them anyway,” he said flatly. “And the truth is that none of them are mine. I give my word on that.” He felt a twinge when he thought about Elena, but his word was true.

“Responsible for them?” Sage seemed to be reasoning it out. “You pledged to save them, then. But I only inherit your pledge if you die. But if you die…” The tall man made a helpless gesture.

“You have to live, to save Stefan and Elena and the others.” “I’d say no, but that would make you unhappy. So I’ll say yes—” “And if you don’t perform, I swear I’ll come back to haunt you.” Sage regarded him for a moment. “I don’t think I’ve ever been accused of being unable to perform before,” he said. “But of course that was before I became un vampire.”

Yes, Damon thought, the meeting of the “harem” and Sage was bound to be interesting. At least it would be if the girls discovered who

Sage really was.

But maybe no one would tell them.

20

Elena had seldom felt such relief as she did when she heard Damon’s knock at Dr. Meggar’s door.

“What happened at the Meeting Place?” she asked.

“I never made it there.” Damon explained about the ambush, while the others covertly studied Sage with varying degrees of approval, gratitude, or sheer lust. Elena realized that she’d had too much Black Magic when she felt ready to pass out at several points — although she was sure that the wine had helped Damon to survive a mob attack which might otherwise have killed him.

They, in turn, explained Lady Ulma’s story as briefly as possible. The woman was looking white and shaken by the end.

“I do hope,” she said timidly to Damon, “that when you inherit Old Drohzne’s property”—she paused to swallow—“that you’ll decide to keep me. I know the slaves you brought with you are beautiful and young…but I can make myself very useful as a needlewoman and such. It’s just my back that’s lost its strength, not my mind….”

Damon was perfectly still for a moment. Then he walked over to Elena, who happened to be closest to him. He reached up, unclasped the last loop of rope that had been trailing from Elena’s wrist, and threw it hard across the room. It whipped and wiggled like a snake. “Anyone else wearing one can do the same thing, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

“Except the throwing,” Meredith said quickly, seeing the doctor’s eyebrow clashing as he looked at the many breakable glass beakers stacked along the walls. But she and Bonnie lost no time in losing any final vestige of rope that was still trailing.

“I’m afraid mine are…permanent,” Lady Ulma said, pulling the fabric away from her wrists to expose the welded-on iron bracelets. She looked ashamed at being unable to obey her new master’s first command.

“Do you mind a moment of cold? I have enough Power to freeze them so they’ll shatter,” Damon said.

There was a soft sound from Lady Ulma. Elena thought she had never heard such desperation in any one human noise. “I could stand in snow to my neck for a year to get these awful things off,” the Lady said.

Damon put his hands on either side of one bracelet and Elena could feel the rush of Power that emanated from him. There was a sharp cracking sound. Damon moved his hands and came up with two separate pieces of metal.

Then he did it again, on the other side.

The look in Lady Ulma’s eyes made Elena feel more humble than proud. She had saved one woman from terrible degradation. But how many more remained? She would never know, or be able to save them all if she found out. Not with her Power in the state it was now.

“I think Lady Ulma really ought to get some rest,” Bonnie said, rubbing her own forehead under tumbled strawberry curls. “And Elena, too. You should have seen how many stitches her leg took, Damon. But what do we do, go look for a hotel?”

“Use my house,” said Dr. Meggar, one eyebrow up and one down. Obviously, he had become enmeshed in this story, swept along by its sheer power and beauty — and brutality. “All I ask is that you don’t destroy anything, and that if you see a frog, don’t kiss it, and don’t kill it. There are plenty of blankets and chairs and couches.”

He wouldn’t take a single link from the heavy gold chain Damon had brought to use as income in exchange.

“I…by rights I should help you all get ready for bed,” Lady Ulma murmured faintly to Meredith.

“You’re the worst hurt of all; you should get the best bed,” Meredith replied tranquilly. “And we will help you get into it.”

“The most comfortable bed…that would be in my daughter’s old room.” Dr. Meggar fumbled with a ring of keys. “She married a porter — how I hated to see her go. And this young lady, Miss Elena, can have the old bridal chamber.”

For an instant Elena’s heart was torn by conflicting emotions. She was afraid — yes, she was very sure it was fear she felt — that Damon might sweep her up in his arms and make for the bridal suite with her. And on the other hand…

Just then Lakshmi looked up at her uncertainly. “Do you want me to leave?” she asked.

“Do you have anywhere to go?” Elena asked in turn.

“The street, I guess. I usually sleep in a barrel.”