Лиза Смит - The Return - Midnight

“Easy. Easy, love. Remember what Lady Ulma said? Nearly a year here came out to be only days in our world.”

Elena hesitated. It was true; she couldn’t deny it. Still, she felt so cold…

Physically cold, she realized suddenly, as a blast of frigid air swirled around her, cutting through her leather like a machete.

“We need our inner furs,” Elena gasped. “We must be getting near the fracture.”

They yanked down the palanquin covers and secured them and then hastily rummaged through the neat cabinet that was set on the rump of the thurg.

The furs were so sleek that Elena could fit two under her leather easily.

They were disturbed by Damon coming inside with Bonnie in his arms.

“She stopped talking,” he said, and added, “Whenever you’re warm enough, I suggest that you come out.”

Elena laid Bonnie down on one of the two benches inside the palanquin and piled blanket after blanket over her, tucking them in around her. Then Elena made herself climb back up.

For a moment she felt blinded. Not by the surly red sun — they had left that behind some mountains, which it turned a pink sapphire color — but by a world of white.

Seemingly endless, flat, featureless whiteness stretched out before her until a bank of fog obscured whatever was behind it.

“According to legend, we should be headed toward the Silver Lake of Death,” Damon’s voice said from behind Elena. And, oddly, throughout all this chill, his voice was warm — almost friendly. “Also known as Lake Mirror. But I can’t change into a crow to scout ahead. Something’s hindering me. And that fog in front of us is impenetrable to psychic probing.”

Elena instinctively glanced around her. Stefan was still inside the palanquin, obviously still tending to Bonnie.

“You’re looking for the lake? What’s it like? I mean, I can guess why it might be called Silver and Lake Mirror,” she said. “But what’s the Death bit?”

“Water dragons. At least that’s what people say — but who has been there to bring back the story?” Damon looked at her.

He took care of Bonnie while she was in trance, Elena thought. And he’s talking to me at last.

“Water…dragons?” she asked him and she made her voice friendly, too. As if they’d just met. They were starting over.

“I’ve always suspected kronosaurus, myself,” Damon said. He was right behind her now; she could feel him blocking the icy wind — no, more than that. He was generating an envelope of heat for her to stand in. Elena’s shivering stopped. She felt for the first time that she could unwrap her arms from clutching herself.

Then she felt a pair of strong arms folding around her, and the heat abruptly got quite intense. Damon was standing behind her, holding her, and all at once she was very warm indeed.

“Damon,” she began, not very steadily, “we can’t just—”

“There’s a rock outcropping over there. No one could see us,” the vampire behind her offered — to Elena’s absolute shock. A week of not speaking at all — and now this.

“Damon, the guy in the palanquin just below us is my—”

“Prince? Don’t you need a knight, then?” Damon breathed this directly into her ear. Elena stood like a statue. But what he said next rocked her entire universe.

“You like the story of Camelot, don’t you? Only here you’re the queen, princess.

You married your not-quite-fairy-tale prince, but along came a knight who knew even more of your secrets, and he called to you…”

“He forced me,” Elena said, turning to meet Damon’s dark eyes straight on, even as her brain screamed for her to let it go. “He didn’t wait for me to hear his call. He just…took what he wanted. Like the slavers do. I didn’t know how to fight — then.”

“Oh, no. You fought and fought. I’ve never seen a human fight so hard. But even when you fought, you felt the call of my heart to yours. Try to deny that.”

“Damon — why now — all of a sudden…?”

Damon made a move as if to turn away, then turned back. “Because by tomorrow we may be dead,” he said flatly. “I wanted you to know how I felt about you before I died — or you did.”

“But you haven’t told me a word about how you feel about me. Only about what you think I feel about you. And I’m sorry that I slapped you the first day I was here, but—”

“You were magnificent,” Damon said outrageously. “Forget it now. As for how I feel — maybe I’ll get a chance to really show it to you someday.”

Something sparked inside Elena — they were back to fencing with words, as they had been when they’d first met. “Someday? Sounds convenient. And why not now?”

“Do you mean that?”

“Do I habitually say things I don’t mean?”

She was waiting for some kind of apology, some words spoken as simply and sincerely as she had been speaking to him. Instead, with the utmost gentleness, and without glancing around to see if anyone was watching them, Damon cupped Elena’s scarf-bound cheeks with his bare hands, pulled the scarf just below her lips with his thumbs, and kissed her softly. Softly — but not briefly, and something in Elena kept whispering to her that of course she had heard his call from the moment she first saw him, first felt his aura call to her. She hadn’t known that it was an aura then; she hadn’t believed in auras. She hadn’t believed in vampires. She’d been an ignorant little idiot…

Stefan! A voice like crystal sounded off two notes in her brain, and suddenly she was able to step back from Damon’s embrace and look at the palanquin again. No sign of motion there.

“I have to go back,” she told Damon brusquely. “I have to know what’s going on with Bonnie.”

“You mean to see what’s going on with Stefan,” he said. “You needn’t worry. He’s fast asleep, and so is our little girl.”

Elena tensed. “You Influenced them? Without seeing them?” It was a wild guess, but one side of Damon’s mouth crooked up, as if congratulating her. “How dare you?” she said.

“To be honest, I don’t know how I dare.” Damon leaned in close again, but Elena turned her cheek, thinking, Stefan!

He can’t hear you. He’s dreaming about you.

Elena was surprised at her own reaction to that. Damon had caught and held her eyes again. Something inside her melted in the intensity of his steady black gaze.

“I’m not Influencing you; I give you my word”—in a whisper. “But you can’t deny what happened between us the last time we were in this dimension.” His breath was on her lips now — and Elena didn’t turn aside. She trembled.

“Please, Damon. Show some respect. I’m — oh, God! God!”

“Elena? Elena! Elena! What’s wrong?”

Hurts — that was all Elena could think. A terrible agony had lanced through her chest on the left side. As if she’d been stabbed through the heart. She stifled a scream.

Elena, talk to me! If you can’t send your thoughts, speak!

Through numb lips, Elena said, “Pain — heart attack—”

“You’re too young and healthy for that. Let me check.” Damon was unfastening her top. Elena let him. She could do nothing for herself, except gasp, “Oh God! It hurts!”

Damon’s warm hand was inside her leather and furs. His hand came to rest slightly to the left of center, with only her camisole between his probing fingers and her flesh. Elena, I’m going to take the pain away now. Trust me.

Even as he spoke, the stabbing anguish drained. Damon’s eyes narrowed, and Elena knew he’d taken the pain into himself, to analyze it.

“It’s not a heart attack,” he said a moment later. “I’m as sure as I can be. It’s more as if — well, as if you’d been staked. But that’s silly. Hmm…it’s gone now.”