The Return: Shadow Souls

fell straight in graceful, silken folds all the way to Elena’s delicate sandals — again designed in gold, mother-of-pearl and diamonds. In the back, the two panels that clasped at the shoulder became straps and crossed over to once again meet at the pleated waist.

Such a simple dress, but so magnificent on the right girl.

At Elena’s throat, an exquisitely designed golden and mother-of-pearl necklace in the stylized shape of a butterfly was inset with so many diamonds that it seemed to blaze with multicolored fire each time she moved and they caught the light. She wore this over the lapis and diamond pendant Stefan had given her, since she had flatly refused to take the pendant off. It didn’t matter. The butterfly covered the pendant completely.

On each wrist Elena wore a wide bracelet of gold and mother-of-pearl inset with diamonds, creations that they had found in the secret jewel room, obviously made to go with the necklace.

And that was all. Elena’s hair had been brushed and brushed and brushed until it formed a silky golden tumble of waves that hung below her shoulders in back, and she was wearing a touch of rose-colored lipstick. But her face, with its thick black eyelashes and lighter arched brows — and just now its look of excitement that parted her rose-colored lips and brought brilliant color to her cheeks — had been left entirely alone. Earrings that were just cascades of diamonds peeped through her gold tresses.

She’s going to drive them crazy tonight, Bonnie thought, eyeing the daring dress with envy, but not with jealousy, instead rather reveling in the thought of the sensation Elena would make. She’s wearing the simplest gown of any of us, but she still completely puts Meredith and me in the shade.

Yet Bonnie had never seen Meredith look better — or more exotic. She’d also never known what a stunning figure Meredith had, despite her friend’s wide assortment of designer clothes.

Meredith shrugged when Bonnie told her this. She had a fan, too, black lacquer, that folded. Now she opened it and folded it shut again, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

“We’re in the hands of a genius,” she said simply. “But we can’t forget what we’re really here for.”

26

“We have to keep our minds on saving Stefan,” Elena was saying in the room Damon had taken over for his own, the old library in Lady Ulma’s mansion.

“Where else would my mind be?” Damon said, never taking his eyes off her neck with its ornaments of mother-of-pearl and diamonds. Somehow the milk-white dress served to emphasize the slim soft column of Elena’s throat, and Elena knew it.

She sighed.

“If we thought you really meant it, then we could all just relax.”

“You mean be as relaxed as you are?”

Elena gave herself an inner shake. Damon might seem to be completely absorbed with one thing and one thing only, but his sense of self-preservation made sure that he was constantly on guard, and seeing not just what he wanted to see but everything that was around him.

And it was true that Elena was almost unbearably excited. Let the others think it was about her marvelous dress — and it was a marvelous dress, and Elena was profoundly grateful to Lady Ulma and her helpers for getting it done in time. What Elena was really excited about, though, was the chance — no, the certainty, she told herself firmly — that tonight she was going to find half of the key that would allow them to free Stefan. The thought of his face, of seeing him in the flesh was…

Was terrifying. Thinking about what Bonnie had said when she was asleep, Elena reached out for comfort and understanding, and somehow found that instead of holding Damon’s hand, she was in Damon’s arms.

The real question is: what will Stefan say about that night at the motel with Damon?

What would Stefan say? What was there to say?

“I’m frightened,” she heard, and a minute too late, recognized her own voice.

“Well, don’t think about it,” Damon said. “It’ll only make things worse.”

But I’ve lied, Elena thought. You don’t even remember it, or you’d be lying, too.

“Whatever happened, I promise I’ll still be around for you,” Damon said softly. “You’ve got my word on that, anyway.”

Elena could feel his breath against her hair. “And on keeping your mind on the key?”

Yes, yes, but I haven’t fed properly today. Elena started, then clasped Damon closer. For just an instant she’d felt, not merely a ravaging hunger, but a sharp pain that puzzled her. But now, before she could quite locate it in space, it was gone, and her connection to Damon had been abruptly cut off.

Damon.

“What?”

Don’t shut me out.

“I’m not. I’ve just said all there is to say, that’s all. You know I’ll be looking for the key.”

Thank you. Elena tried again. But you can’t just starve—

Who said I was starving? Now Damon’s telepathic connection was back, but something was missing. He was deliberately holding something back, and concentrating on assaulting her senses with something else — hunger. Elena could feel it rampaging in him, as if he were a tiger or wolf that had gone for days — for weeks — without making a kill.

The room did a slow spin around her.

“It’s…all right,” she whispered, amazed that Damon was able to stand and hold her at all, with his insides tearing at him that way. “Whatever…you need…take…”

And then she felt the most gentle probing at her throat of razor-sharp teeth.

She gave herself up to it, surrendering to the sensations.

In preparation for the Silver Nightingale’s gala, where they would be searching for the first half of the double fox key to release Stefan, Meredith had been reading some of the hard copy she’d stuffed into her bag, from the huge amount of information she had downloaded from the Internet. She had done her best to describe everything that she’d learned to Elena and the others. But how could she be sure that she hadn’t missed some vital clue, some vastly important thread of information that would make all the difference tonight between success and failure? Between finding a way to save Stefan and coming home defeated, while he languished in prison.

No, she thought, standing by a silvered mirror, almost afraid to look at the exotic beauty she had become. No, we can’t even think of the word failure. For the sake of Stefan’s life, we have to succeed. And we have to do it without getting caught.

27

Elena felt confident and just a little light-headed as they set out for the Silver Nightingale’s gala. However, when the four of them arrived on litters — Damon with Elena, Meredith with Bonnie (Lady Ulma being forbidden by her doctor to go to any festivities while she was pregnant) — at the Honorable Lady Fazina’s palatial home, she was struck with something like terror.

The house was truly a palace, in the best of story-telling tradition, she thought. Minarets and towers soared above them, probably painted in blue and lavish gilt, but turned lavender by the sunlight, and looking almost lighter than air. To complement the sunlight, torches had been lit on either side of the path of the litters up the hill and some chemical had been added — or some magic used — to make their lights shine in varying colors so that they changed from golden, to red, to purple, to blue, to green, to silver, and these colors shone true. They took Elena’s breath away, as the only things that were not tinged with red in the whole world that she could see. Damon had brought a bottle of Black Magic with him and was almost too high-spirited — no pun intended, Elena thought.

As their litter stopped at the top of the hill, Damon and Elena were helped out and down a hallway that cut out much of the sunlight. Above them hung delicate, lighted paper lanterns — some larger than the litter they’d been in a moment ago — brightly lighted and fancifully shaped which gave a festive, playful air to a palace otherwise so magnificent that it was a little intimidating.

They passed by lighted fountains, some of which had surprises — like the line of magical frogs that constantly leaped from lily pad to lily pad: plop, plop, plop, like the sound of rain on a rooftop, or a huge gilded serpent that coiled among trees and over the heads of visitors, winding from there to the ground and