Stefan stared into those heated black-on-black eyes and again saw the tiny flicker of flame. He tried to think. Damon was always quick to attack, to take offense. Butnot like this . Stefan had known him long enough to know something was off; something was wrong. Damon seemed almost feverish. Stefan sent a small surge of Power toward his brother, like a radar sweep, trying to put his finger on what was different.
"Yes, I see you've got the idea, but you'll never get anywhere that way," Damon said wryly, and then suddenly Stefan's insides, his entire body was on fire, was in agony, as Damon lashed out with a violent whip of his own Power.
And now, however bad the pain was, Stefan had to be coldly rational; he had to keepthinking , not just reacting. He made a small movement, twisting his neck to the side, looking toward the door of the boardinghouse. If only Elena would stay inside...
But it was hard to think with Damon still whiplashing him. He was breathing fast and hard.
"That's right," Damon said. "We vampirestake - a lesson you need to learn."
"Damon, we're supposed to take care of each other - we promised - "
"Yes, and I'm going to take care ofyou right now."
And Damon bled him.
It was even more painful than the lashings of Power, and Stefan held himself carefully still for it, refusing to put up a struggle. The razor-sharp teeth shouldn't have hurt as they plunged into his carotid, but Damon was holding him at an angle - now by his hair - deliberately so that they did.
Then came the real pain. The agony of having blood drawn out against your will, against your resistance. That was a torture that humans compared with having their souls ripped out from their living bodies. They would do anything to avoid it. All Stefan knew was that it was one of the greatestphysical anguishes that
he had ever had to endure, and that at last tears formed in his eyes and rolled down his temples and down into his wavy dark hair.
Worse, for a vampire, was the humiliation of having another vampire treat you like a human, treat you likemeat . Stefan's heart was pounding in his ears as he writhed under the double carving knives of Damon's canines, trying to bear the mortification of being used this way. At least - thank God - Elena had listened to him and stayed in his room.
He was beginning to wonder if Damon had truly gone insane and meant to kill him when - at last - with a shove that sent him off balance, Damon released him. Stefan tripped and fell, rolled, and looked up, only to find Damon standing over him again. He pressed his fingers to the torn flesh on his neck.
"And now," Damon said coldly, "you will go up and get me my jacket."
Stefan got up slowly. He knew Damon must be savoring this: Stefan's humiliation, Stefan's neat clothes wrinkled and covered with torn blades of grass and mud from Mrs. Flowers' scraggly flower bed. He did his best to brush them off with one hand, the other still pressed to his neck.
"You're quiet," Damon remarked, standing by his Ferrari, running his tongue over his lips and gums, his eyes narrow with pleasure. "No snappy back talk? Not even a word? I think this is a lesson I should teach you more often."
Stefan was having trouble making his legs move. Well, that went about as well as could be expected, he thought as he turned back toward the boardinghouse. Then he stopped.
Elena was leaning out of the unshuttered window in his room, holding Damon's jacket. Her expression was very sober, suggesting she'd seen everything.
It was a shock for Stefan, but he suspected it was an even greater shock for Damon.
And then Elena whirled the jacket around once and threw it so that it made a direct landing at Damon's feet, wrapping around them.
To Stefan's astonishment, Damon went pale. He picked up the jacket as if he didn't really want to touch it. His eyes were on Elena the whole time. He got in his car.
"Good-bye, Damon. I can't say it's been a pleasure - "
Without a word, looking for all the world like a naughty child who'd been whipped, Damon turned on the ignition.
"Just leave me alone," he said expressionlessly in a low voice.
He drove off in a cloud of dust and gravel.
Elena's eyes were not serene when Stefan shut the door to his room behind him. They were shining with a light that nearly stopped him in the doorway.
Hehurtyou.
"He hurts everyone. He doesn't seem to be able to help it. But there was something weird about him today. I don't know what. Right now, I don't care. But look at you, making sentences!"
He's...Elena paused, and for the first time since she'd first opened her eyes back in the glade where she had been resurrected, there was a frown-wrinkle on her forehead. She couldn't make a picture. She didn't know the right words.Something inside him. Growing inside him. Like...cold fire, dark light, she said finally.But hidden. Fire that burns from the inside out.
Stefan tried to match this up with anything he'd heard of and came up blank. He was still humiliated that Elena had seen what had happened. "AllI know that's inside him is my blood. Along with that of half the girls in town."
Elena shut her eyes and shook her head slowly. Then, as if deciding not to go any further down that path, she patted the bed beside her.
Come,she ordered confidently, looking up. The gold in her eyes seemed especially lustrous.Let me...unhurt...the pain.
When Stefan didn't come immediately, she held out her arms. Stefan knew he shouldn't go to them, but hewas hurt - especially in his pride.
He went to her and bent down to kiss her hair.
Chapter 3
Later that day Caroline was sitting with Matt Honeycutt, Meredith Sulez, and Bonnie McCullough, all listening to Stefan on Bonnie's mobile phone.
"Late afternoon would be better," Stefan told Bonnie. "She takes a little nap after lunch - and anyway, it'll be cooler in a couple hours. I told Elena you'd be coming by, and she's excited to see you. But remember two things. First, it's only been seven days since she came back, and she's not quite...herself yet. I think she'll get over her - symptoms - in just a few days, but meanwhile don't be surprised by anything. And second, don'tsay anything about what you see here. Not to anyone."