by L. J. Smith
And a good thing, Stefan thought. If they had caught you—oh, my lovely love! His arms squeezed the breath from Elena’s lungs. So that’s why you were suddenly so eager to leave!
“They took almost everything else supernatural about me,” Elena whispered, placing her lips close to Stefan’s ear. “I have to live with that, and if they’d given me a chance I’d have agreed—for the sake of Fell’s Church—if I’d been logical—” She broke off as she suddenly realized that she had been literally out of her mind. She’d been worse than a thief. She’d tried to use a lethal attack on a group of—mostly—innocent people. And the worst thing was that a part of her knew that Damon would have understood her madness, while she wasn’t sure Stefan ever could.
“But you don’t have to change me into—you know,” she began whispering frenetically again. “A sip or two of this and I can be with you forever. Forever and—for—forever—Stefan—” She stopped, trying to get her breath and her mental balance.
His hand closed over hers on the cap. “Elena.”
“I’m not crying. It’s because I’m happy. Forever and ever, Stefan. We can be together, just…just us two…forever.”
“Elena, love.” His hand kept hers from twisting open the bottle.
“It—isn’t what you want?”
With his other arm, Stefan pulled her tightly to him. Her head fell forward onto his shoulder and he rested his chin on her hair. “It’s what I want more than anything. I’m…dazed, I guess. I have been ever since—” He stopped and tried again. “If we have all the time in the world, we have tomorrow,” he said in a voice muffled by hair. “And tomorrow is time enough for you to start to think it through. There’s enough in that bottle for maybe four or five people. You’re the one who’s going to have to decide who drinks it, love. But not tonight. Tonight is for…”
With a sudden rush of joy Elena understood. “You’re talking about—Damon.” Amazing how difficult it was to simply say his name. It almost seemed a violation, and yet…
When he could talk—like this—for a moment to me, he told me what he wanted, she sent. Stefan stirred a little in the darkness, but said nothing. Stefan, he only asked for one thing before he…went. It was not to be forgotten. That’s all. And we’re the ones who remember the most. Us and Bonnie.
Aloud she added, “I will never forget him. And I will never let anyone else who knew him forget him—for as long as I live.”
She knew she’d spoken too loudly, but Stefan didn’t try to quiet her. He gave one quick shudder and then held her tightly again, his face buried in her hair.
I remember, he sent to her, when Katherine asked him to join her—when we three were in Honoria Fell’s crypt. I remember what he said to her. Do you?
Elena felt their souls intertwine as they both saw the scene through the other’s eyes. Of course, I remember too.
Stefan sighed, half-laughing. I remember trying to take care of him later in Florence. He wouldn’t behave, wouldn’t even Influence the girls he fed on. Another sigh. I think he wanted to get caught at that point. He couldn’t even look me in the face and talk about you.
I made Bonnie send for you. I made sure she got both of you out here, Elena told him. Her tears had begun to flow again, but slowly—gently. Her eyes were shut and she felt a faint smile come to her lips.
Do you know—Stefan’s mental voice was startled, astonished—I remember something else! From when I was very young, maybe three or four years old. My father had a terrible temper, especially right after my mother died. And back then, when I was little, and my father was furious and drunk, Damon would deliberately get in between us. He’d say something obnoxious and—well, my father would end up beating him instead of me. I don’t know how I could have forgotten about that.
I do, Elena thought, remembering how frightened she had been of Damon when he’d first turned human—even though he’d put himself in between her and the vampires who wanted to Discipline her in the Dark Dimension. He had a gift for knowing exactly what to say—how to look—what to do—to get under anyone’s skin.
She could feel Stefan chuckle faintly, wryly. A gift, was it?
Well, I certainly couldn’t do it, and I can manage most people, Elena replied softly. Not him, though. Never him.
Stefan added, But he was almost always kinder to weak people than to strong ones. He always did have that soft spot for Bonnie… He broke off, as if frightened he’d ventured too near something sacred.
But Elena had her bearings now. She was glad, so glad, that in the end Damon had died to save Bonnie. Elena herself needed no more proof of his feelings about her. She would always love Damon, and she would never allow anything to diminish that love.
And, somehow, it seemed fitting that she and Stefan should sit in her old bedroom and speak of what they remembered of Damon in hushed tones. She planned on taking the same thing up with the others tomorrow.
When she finally fell asleep in Stefan’s arms, it was hours after midnight.
44
On the smallest moon of the Nether World fine ash was falling. It fell on two already ash-covered bodies. It fell on ash-choked water. It blocked the sunlight so that an endless midnight covered the moon’s ash-coated surface.
And something else fell. In the smallest imaginable droplets, an opalescent fluid fell, colors swirling as if to try and make up for the ugliness of the ashes. They were tiny drops, but there were trillions upon trillions of them, falling endlessly, concentrated over the spot where they had once been part of the largest container of raw Power in three dimensions.
There was a body on the ground on this spot—not quite a corpse. The body had no heartbeat; it did not breathe, and there was no brain activity. But somewhere in it there was a slow pulsing, that quickened very slightly as the tiny drops of Power fell upon it.
The pulsing was made up of nothing but a memory. The memory of a girl with dark blue eyes and golden hair and a small face with wide brown eyes. And the taste: the taste of two maidens’ tears. Elena. Bonnie.
Putting the two of them together they formed what was not exactly a thought, not exactly a picture. But to someone who only understood words, it might be translated:
They are wiating for me. If I can figure out who I am.
And that sparked a fierce determination.
After what seemed like centuries but was only a few hours, something moved in the ash. A fist clenched.
And something stirred in the brain, a self-revelation. A name.
Damon.
About the Author
L. J. SMITH has written more than two dozen books for children and young adults. She lives in the Bay Area of California, but is happiest in a little cabin near Point Reyes National Park, which has lots of trees, lots of animals, lots of beaches to walk on, and lots of places to hike. Please visit her online at www.ljanesmith.net for new stories about old characters and even sneak peeks of upcoming books.
Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.
Other Books by L. J. Smith
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. I: THE AWAKENING
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. II: THE STRUGGLE
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. III: THE FURY
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
VOL. IV: DARK REUNION
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE RETURN VOL. 1: NIGHTFALL
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE RETURN VOL. 2: SHADOW SOULS
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES:
THE RETURN VOL. 3: MIDNIGHT
THE SECRET CIRCLE:
THE INITIATION AND THE CAPTIVE PART I
THE SECRET CIRCLE:
THE CAPTIVE PART II AND THE POWER
Credits
Jacket art © 2011 by Carrie Schechter
Jacket design by Jennifer Heuer
Copyright
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES: The Return: Midnight. Copyright © 2011 by L. J. Smith. All rights
reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, L. J. (Lisa J.)
Midnight / L.J. Smith.—1st ed.
p. cm.—(The vampire diaries: the return; v. 3)
Summary: Eighteen-year-old Elena Gilbert’s latest battle against the demons that have taken over her hometown of Fell’s Church is complicated by the fact that Damon is a mortal since he, his brother Stefan, and Elena returned from the Dark Dimension.
ISBN 978-0-06-172085-7 (trade bdg.)
[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 3. Brothers—Fiction. 4. Vampires—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S6537Mid 2011 2010042677
[Fic]—dc22
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2011 ISBN: 978-0-06-206982-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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