"You've gotten soft," Katherine said. "You don't like hurting people anymore."
Damon shoved his sunglasses farther up his nose and shrugged. "It'll pass."
Cool hands touched his cheeks and then Katherine gently pulled off Damon's sunglasses, gazing into his eyes. "Love changes you," she said. "And it never fades, no matter how much you might want it to." Rising onto her tiptoes, she kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Don't make the mistakes I've made, Damon," she said sadly. "Don't fight love, whatever form it takes."
Damon brought his hand up to touch the spot where Katherine's lips had kissed him. He felt stunned and lost.
Handing him his sunglasses, Katherine sighed. "I don't really owe you any favors, Damon," she told him, "but I'm feeling sentimental. Your Elena's in class right now. Rhodes Hall. I don't know exactly what Klaus is going to do, but he's planning something. You might want to get over there and stop it."
Gripping the sunglasses, Damon stared at her in confusion. "What?" he asked.
There was something soft and wistful in Katherine's eyes, but her voice was firm. "Better hurry," she said, raising an eyebrow.
Damon felt as if a living creature was clawing its way through his chest, something huge and painful. Was this what love felt like, after all?
"Thank you," he said absently. He walked away from Katherine a few paces, then sped into a run. He gathered his Power and began transforming, feeling his body twist as he changed into a crow. A moment later, he was aloft, stretching his wings to catch the airstream as he flapped his way quickly toward campus.
Chapter 34
Elena trailed out of her freshman English section near the end of the crowd, still stuffing her notebook into her bag. Zipping it closed, she looked up to see Andres waiting patiently in the hall directly outside her classroom.
"Hey," she said. "What's going on?"
"Stefan and I think it's not a great idea for you to be on your own right now," he said, falling into step beside her. "He and Meredith both have class, so I'll walk you wherever you're going."
"I have Powers of my own, you know," Elena said, a little haughtily. "Even if they're not really fighting ones yet, I'm not a damsel in distress."
Andres nodded, a slow, solemn dip of his head. "Forgive me," he said formally. "I don't think any of us should be alone now. James's death proves that."
"I'm sorry," Elena said. "I know it's been hard for you, especially since you were living at James's house."
Andres nodded. "It has," he said, and then made a visible effort to be more cheerful, throwing back his shoulders and pasting on a smile. "But I must take advantage of the chance that allows me more time with my charming and beautiful friend."
"Oh, in that case," Elena said, following his lead, and took Andres's proffered arm. As they moved down the hall, she examined him carefully out of the corner of her eye. Despite his courtliness, Andres looked haggard and worn, the lines at the corners of his eyes more pronounced. He looked older than twenty now.
James's death had hit them all hard. It felt more real, somehow, than Chad's death. It had happened in James's house, not on a battlefield, and so proved that death could come for them anywhere. When Elena had looked in the mirror the last few mornings, the face gazing back at her was grimmer, her eyes rimmed with gray circles.
Still, they had to keep going, for one another. Whistling in the dark, people called it, when you kept your own spirits up by finding any happiness you could.
Squeezing Andres's arm affectionately, Elena asked, "How are you settling into Matt's room?" The police had sealed James's house, so Matt had offered up his own empty room to their visitor. Matt himself was back to camping out in the half-burned boathouse with Chloe.
"Ah," Andres said, his face relaxing into a smile as they stepped onto the elevator and pushed the button for the ground floor. "The dormitory life is very strange to me. There is always something happening."
Elena was laughing at Andres's tale of a drunken freshman wandering into his room at three in the morning, and Andres's own polite and befuddled attempts to steer the intruder back to his own dormitory, when the elevator jerked violently to a stop.
"What's happening?" Elena said warily.
"Maybe it's an electrical problem," Andres said, but his voice was doubtful.
Elena pushed the button for the ground floor again, and the elevator gave a deep groan and then began to shake. They both gasped and steadied themselves, hands against the walls.
"I'll try the emergency button," Elena said. She pushed it, but nothing happened.
"Weird," she said, and flinched at the uncertain note in her own voice. "It seems disconnected, too." She hesitated. "Do you have a weapon?" she asked. Andres shook his head, his face pale.
The elevator rattled again, and then the lights went out, leaving them in the dark. Elena found Andres's warm hand and clutched it.
"Is this . . . do you think this could just be a coincidence?" she whispered. Andres squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"I don't know," he said, his voice troubled. "Can you see anything?"
Of course not, Elena was about to say. The elevator was pitch-black. She couldn't even see Andres despite the fact that he was holding her protectively close to him. Then she realized what he meant, and closed her eyes for a moment to reach deep inside herself, calling on her Power.
When she opened her eyes again, she could see the warm, living green of Andres's aura, lighting up the darkness. But at the edges of her consciousness was something else.