Лиза Смит - The Return - Shadow Souls

That’s right, Elena thought. It’s my aura — or Damon’s — that they’re homing in on. We can’t confuse them with identical cars unless we have identical auras, too.

Which really meant that she should drive with Matt the whole way. But Damon would never accept that. And she needed Damon to get to her beloved, her one and only, her true mate: Stefan.

“I’ll take the ratty one,” Matt was saying, arranging it with Damon and ignoring her. “I’m used to ratty cars. I already arranged a deal with the guy. We should get going.” Still speaking only to Damon, he said, “You’ll have to tell me where we’re really going. We might get separated.”

Damon was silent for a long moment. Then, brusquely, he said, “Sedona, Arizona, for a start.”

Matt looked disgusted. “That place full of New Age lunatics? You’re kidding.”

“I said we’ll start out from Sedona. It’s complete wilderness — nothing but rock — all around it. You could get lost…very easily.” Damon flashed the brilliant smile and instantly turned it off.

“We’ll be at the Juniper Resort, off North Highway 89A,” he added smoothly.

“I’ve got it,” Matt said. Elena could see no emotion in either his face or his expression, but his aura was seething red.

“Now, Matt,” Elena began, “we should really meet every night, so if you just follow us—” She broke off with a sharply inhaled breath.

Matt had already turned around. He didn’t turn back when she spoke. He just kept going, without another word.

Without a backward glance.

Elena woke to the sound of Damon impatiently rapping on the window of the Prius. She was fully clothed, clutching her diary to her. It was the day after Matt had left them.

“Did you sleep all night like that?” Damon asked, looking her up and down as Elena rubbed her eyes. As usual, he was immaculately dressed: all in black, of course. Heat and humidity had no effect on him.

“I’ve had my breakfast,” he said shortly, getting in the driver’s seat. “And I brought you this .”

This was a styrofoam cup of steaming coffee, which Elena clutched as gratefully as if it were Black Magic wine, and a brown paper bag that proved to contain donuts. Not exactly the most nutritious breakfast, but Elena craved the caffeine and sugar.

“I need a rest stop,” Elena warned as Damon coolly seated himself behind the wheel and started the car. “To change my clothes and wash my face and things.”

They headed directly west, which accorded with what Elena had found by looking at a map on the Internet last night. The small image on her mobile phone matched the Prius’s navigation system readout. They had both shown that Sedona, Arizona, lay on an almost perfectly straight horizontal line from the small rural road where Damon had parked overnight in Arkansas. But soon Damon was turning south, taking a roundabout route of his own that might or might not confuse any pursuers. By the time they found a rest stop, Elena’s bladder was about to burst. She spent an unashamed half hour in the women’s room, doing her best to wash with paper towels and cold water, brushing her hair, and changing into new jeans and a fresh white top that laced up the front like a corset. After all, one of these days she just might have another out of body experience while napping and see Stefan again.

What she didn’t want to think about was that with Matt’s departure, she was left alone with Damon, an untamed vampire, traveling through the middle of the United States toward a destination that was literally out of this world.

When Elena finally emerged from the restroom, Damon was cold and expressionless — although she noticed that he took the time to look her over just the same.

Oh, damn , Elena thought. I left my diary in the car.

She was as certain that he’d read it as if she’d seen him doing it, and she was glad that there was nothing in it about leaving her body and finding Stefan. Although she believed Damon wanted to free Stefan, too — she wouldn’t be in this car with him if she didn’t — she also felt that it was better that he didn’t know she had gotten there first. Damon enjoyed being in charge of things as much as she did. He also enjoyed Influencing each police officer who pulled him over for blasting the speed limit.

But today he was short-tempered even by his own standards. Elena knew from firsthand experience that Damon could make himself remarkably good company when he chose, telling outrageous stories and jokes until the most prejudiced and taciturn of passengers would laugh in spite of themselves.

But today he wouldn’t even reply to Elena’s questions, much less laugh at her own jokes. The one time she tried to make physical contact, touching his arm lightly, he jerked away as if her touch might ruin his black leather jacket.

Fine, terrific, Elena thought, depressed. She leaned her head against the window and stared at the scenery, which all looked alike. Her mind wandered.

Where was Matt now? Ahead of them or behind? Had he gotten any rest last night? Was he driving through Texas now? Was he eating properly? Elena blinked away tears, which welled up whenever she remembered the way he had walked away from her without a backward look.

Elena was a manager. She could make almost any situation turn out okay, as long as the people around her were normal, sane beings.

And managing boys was her speciality. She’d been handling them — steering them — since junior high. But now, approximately two and a half weeks since she had come back from death, from some spirit world that she didn’t remember, she didn’t want to steer anyone.

That was what she loved about Stefan. Once she’d gotten past his reflexive instinct to keep away from anything he cherished, she didn’t need to manage him at all. He was maintenance-free, except for the gentlest of hints that she’d turned herself into an expert on vampires. Not at hunting them or slaying them, but at loving them safely. Elena knew when it was right to bite or be bitten, and when to stop, and how to keep herself human.

But apart from those gentle hints, she didn’t even want to manage Stefan. She wanted simply to be with him. After that, everything took care of itself.

Elena could live without Stefan — she thought . But just as being away from Meredith and Bonnie was like living without her two hands, living without Stefan would be like trying to live without her heart. He was her partner in the Great Dance; her equal and her opposite; her beloved and her lover in the purest sense imaginable. He was the other half of the Sacred Mysteries of Life to her.

And after seeing him last night, even if it had been a dream, which she wasn’t willing to accept, Elena missed him so much that it was a throbbing pain inside her. A pain so great that she couldn’t bear to just sit and dwell on it. If she did she might just go insane and start raving at Damon to drive faster — and Elena might hurt inside, but she wasn’t suicidal.

They stopped at some nameless town for lunch. Elena had no appetite, but Damon spent the entire break as a bird, which for some reason infuriated her.

By the time they were driving again, the tension in the car had built until the old cliché was impossible to avoid: you could cut it with a folded napkin, much less a knife, Elena thought.

That was when she realized exactly what kind of tension it was.

The one thing that was saving Damon was his pride.

He knew that Elena had things figured out. She’d stopped trying to touch him or even speak to him. And that was good .

He wasn’t supposed to be feeling like this. Vampires wanted girls for their pretty white throats, and Damon’s sense of esthetics demanded that the rest of the donor be at least up to his standards. But now even Elena’s human-sized aura was advertising the unique life-force in her blood. And Damon’s response was involuntary. He had not even thought about a girl in this way for approximately five hundred years. Vampires weren’t capable of it.