Лиза Смит - The Return - Nightfall

“But they’re not afraid that the vampires they cheat will want revenge?”

Damon laughed, this time musically. “A vampire who doesn’t want to be a vampire is about the lowest object on the totem pole on the Other Side. Oh, except for humans. Along with lovers who’ve fulfilled suicide pacts, kids who jump off the roof because they think their Superman cape can make them fly—” Elena tried to pull away from him, to reprove him, but he was surprisingly strong. “It doesn’t sound like a very nice place.”

“It isn’t.”

“And that’s where Stefan is?”

“If we’re lucky.”

“So basically,” she said, seeing things, as she always did, in terms of Plans A, B, C, and D, “first we have to find out where Stefan is from these twins. Second, we have to get the twins to heal the little girls they’ve possessed. Third, we have to get them to leave Fell’s Church alone — for good. But before any of that, we have to find Stefan. He’ll be able to help us; I know he will. And then we just hope we’re strong enough for the rest.”

“We could use Stefan’s help, all right. But you missed the real point — for now, what we have to do is keep the twins from killing us.”

“They still think you’re their friend, yes?” Elena’s mind was flickering through options. “Make them sure you are. Wait until a strategic moment comes, and then take the chance. Do we have any weapons against them?”

“Iron. They do badly against iron — they’re demons. And dear Shinichi is obsessed with you, although I can’t say his sister will approve when she realizes it.”

“Obsessed?”

“Yes. With you and with English folk songs, remember? Although I can’t fathom why. The songs, I mean.”

“Well, I don’t know what we can make of that—”

“But I’ll bet that his obsession with you will make Misao angry. It’s just a hunch, but she’s had him to herself for thousands of years.”

“Then we set them against each other, pretend that he’s going to get me. Damon — what?” Elena added in tones of alarm as he tightened his grip on her as if concerned.

“He’s not going to get you,” Damon said.

“I know that.”

“I don’t quite like the idea of anyone else getting you. You were meant to be mine, you know.”

“Damon, don’t. I’ve told you. Please—”

“Meaning ‘please don’t make me hurt you’? The truth is that you can’t hurt me unless I let you. You can only hurt yourself against me.”

Elena could at least pull their upper bodies farther apart. “Damon, we just made an agreement, made plans. Now, what are we doing, throwing them all away?”

“No, but I thought of another way to get you a grade-A superhero, right now. You’ve been saying I should take more of your blood for ages.”

“Oh…yes.” It was true, even if that had been before he had admitted to her the terrible things he’d done. And…

“Damon, what happened with Matt in the clearing? We went looking all over for him, but we didn’t find him. And you were glad.”

He didn’t bother to deny it. “In the real world I was angry at him, Elena. He seemed to be just another rival. Part of the reason we’re here is so I can remember exactly what happened.”

“Did you hurt Matt, Damon? Because now you’re hurting me.”

“Yes.” Damon’s voice was light and indifferent suddenly, as if he found it amusing. “I suppose I did hurt him. I used psychic pain on him, and that’s stopped a lot of hearts from beating. But your Mutt’s tough. I like that. I made him suffer more and more, and yet he still went on living because he was afraid to leave you alone.”

“Damon!” Elena wrenched herself back, only to find that it did no good. He was far, far stronger than she was. “How could you do that to him?”

“I told you; he was a rival.” Damon laughed suddenly. “You really don’t remember, do you? I made him abase himself for you. I made him eat dirt, literally, for you.”

“Damon — are you crazy?”

“No. I’m just now finding my sanity. I don’t need to convince you that you belong to me. I can take you.”

“No, Damon. I won’t be your princess of darkness or — or anything else of yours without asking. At the most you’ll have a dead body to play with.”

“Maybe I’d like that. But you forget; I can enter your mind. And you still have friends — at home, getting ready for supper or bed, you hope. Don’t you? Friends with all their limbs; who’ve never known real pain.”

It took Elena a long time to speak. Then she said quietly, “I take back every decent thing I ever said about you. You’re a monster, do you hear that? You’re an abomin—” Her voice wound slowly down. “They’re making you do this, aren’t they?” she said finally, flatly. “Shinichi and Misao. A nice little show for them. Just like they made you hurt Matt and me before.”

“No, I do only what I want to.” Was that a flash of red Elena saw in his eyes? The briefest flaring of a flame…“Do you know how beautiful you are when you’re crying? You’re more beautiful than ever. The gold in your eyes seems to rise to the surface and spill down in tears of diamond. I would love to have a sculptor carve a bust of you weeping.”

“Damon, I know you’re not really saying this. I know that the thing they put inside you is the one saying it.”

“Elena, I assure you, it’s all me. I quite enjoyed it when I made him hurt you. I liked to hear the way you cried out. I made him tear your clothes — I had to hurt him a lot to get him to do it. But didn’t you notice that your camisole had been torn, and that you were barefooted? That was all Mutt.”

Elena forced her mind back to the moment she had come to herself leaping out of the Ferrari. Yes, then, and in the time afterward she had been barefooted and bare-armed, wearing only a camisole. Quite a bit of the fabric of her jeans had been left on the roadside after that, and in the surrounding vegetation. But it had never occurred to her to wonder what had happened to her boots and socks, or how her camisole had been torn in strips at the bottom. She’d simply been so grateful for help…to the one who had hurt her in her first place.

Oh, Damon must have thought that ironic. She suddenly realized she herself was thinking of Damon and not of the possessor. Not of Shinichi and Misao.But they weren’t the same, she told herself. I’ve got to remember that!

“Yes, I enjoyed making him hurt you, and I enjoyed hurting you. I made him bring me a willow rod, just the right thickness, and then whipped you with it. You enjoyed that, too, I promise you. Don’t bother to look for marks because they’ve all gone like the others. But all three of us enjoyed hearing your cries. You…and me…and Mutt, too. In fact, of all of us, he may have enjoyed it most.”

“Damon, shut up! I won’t listen to you talk about Matt that way!”

“I wouldn’t let him see you without your clothes on, though,” Damon confided, as if he hadn’t heard a word. “That was when I had him — dismissed. Put into another snow globe. I wanted to hunt you as you tried to get away from me, in an empty globe that you could never get out of. I wanted to see that special look in your eyes that you get when you fight with everything you have — and I wanted to see it defeated. You’re no fighter, Elena.” Damon laughed suddenly, an ugly sound, and to Elena’s shock his arm shot out and he punched through the wall of the widow’s walk.

“Damon…” She was sobbing by now.

“And then I wanted to do this.” With no warning, Damon’s fist forced her chin up, jerking her head back. His other hand tangled in her hair, bringing her neck back to the exact position he wanted her to be in. And then Elena felt him strike, quick as a cobra, and felt the two tearing wounds in the side of her neck, and her own blood spurting out of them.