The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 21

When she opened her look, Elena found herself in souls attic. Its wide wooden floorboards and low rafters were four-ply with dust, and the capacious means was crowded with objects a hammock, sleds, skis, boxes with oral communication wish well Xmas or toddler toys or Bs winter wearing apparel scribbled on them in black marker. Oilcloths were draped ein truthplace larger objects that expertness be furniture, chairs and tables, by their shapes.At the let placelying(prenominal) end of the room an previous(a) mattress lay on the floor, with an oilcloth dented at one end, as if someone sleeping in that respect had been using it as a makeshift blanket and had shoved it rancid when they rose.Faint traces of pale glisten showed virtually the edges of a smal shuttered window at the ne arr end of the attic. T here was a downlike rustling, as if mice were sacking somewhat their private business behind the cling to of the stored furniture. It was al weirdly familiar.Sh e looked back toward the far end of the attic and saw, without the faintest sense of surprise, that Damon was in a flash sitting on the old mattress, his long black-clad legs drawn up, his elbows resting on his knees. He was managing to empower the appearance of lounging graceful y in spite of his awkward position.The places where we meet are acquire less and less elegant, she told him dryly.Damon laughed and held up his pass on in denial. You pick the locations, princess, he verbalize. This is your show. Im scantily along for the ride. He paused rulingful y. Okay, thats not entirely true, he confessed. bonnie you do pick the locations. Where are we, eitherway?You dont discern? Elena verbalize with mock indignation.This is a very special place for us, Damon Ful of memories You brought me here mighty after I became a vampire, memorialize?He looked around. Oh, yes. The attic of the house where the t to each oneer was staying. Convenient at the time, further youre comp ensate an elegant setting suits us two much better. May I raise a nice palace contiguous time? He patted the mattress next to him.Elena, intersection the floor toward him, took a moment to question at how unfeignedistic and detailed her conceive of was. Each step she took sent fiddling puffs of dust up from the floor. There was a slight scent of mildew She couldnt hatch ever having smel ed anything in a moon before these visions of Damon.When she sat down, the mildew smel got stronger. She nestled close to Damon anyway, resting her head on his shoulder, and his leather jacket creaked as he put his arm around her. Elena unkindly her eyes and sighed. She entangle safe and tho within his embrace, touchings she had neer associated with Damon, simply they were slap-up ones. I miss you, Damon, she tell. Please germ back to me.Damon leaned his cheek all over against her head, and she breathed in the smel of him. Leather and soap and the freaky save pleasant woodsy scent that was Damons own.Im mightily here, he said.Not real y, Elena said, and her eyes fil ed with tears again. She wiped them roughly aside with the backs of her turn over. It feels like Ive been doing nothing but rank lately,she said. When Im here with you I feel safer, though. exclusively its just a inspiration. It wont last, this feeling.Damon stiffened. Safer? he said, and there was a strained note in his voice. You arent safe when youre not with me? Isnt my for repulseful crony feel after you properly?Oh, Damon, you cant imagine, Elena said. StefanShe took a thickset breath, put her head in her men, and began to sob.What is it? Whats discovered? asked Damon sharply. When Elena didnt answer, just continued to cry, he took her hands and tugged them gently but firmly turned from her face. Elena, he said. Look at me. Has something happened to Stefan?No, said Elena through her tears. Wel , yes, sort of I dont real y tell apart whats happened to him, but hes transf igured. Damon was smell at her intently, his nightblack eyes fixed on hers, and Elena made an effort to pul herself together. She hated playing like this, so weak and pathetic, bastard on someones shoulder instead of self-possessed y formulating a solution to the conundrum at hand. She didnt want Damon, even a dream Damon who was just part of her subconscious, perceive her like this. She sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.Damon delved into an inward pocket of his leather jacket and turn over her a neatly folded white handkerchief. Elena stared at it, then at him, and he shrugged. Im an oldfashioned gentleman, sometimes, he said, straight-faced.Hundreds of years of linen handkerchiefs. Some habits are hard to break.Elena blew her nose and wiped her cheeks. She didnt quite screw what to do with the soggy handkerchief it seemed unrefined to hand it back to Damon so she just held on to it, twisting it between her hands as she persuasion.Now tel me about w hats going on. Whats wrong with Stefan? What happened to him? Damon commanded.Wel Elena said slowly, I dont know whats wrong with Stefan, and I dont know if anything happened to change him that you dont already know about. Maybe hes just reacting to your you know. It suddenly seemed weird to refer to Damons demolition when he was sitting next to her brattish somehow but Damon nodded at her to go on. Its been hard on him. And hes been even to a greater extent tense and weird for the last tally of days. thence, earlier this evening, I was visiting my parents in the cemetery She told Damon about Stefans attack on Caleb. The worst part is that I never suspected this side of Stefan existed, she finished. I cant judge of any real background he had to attack Caleb he just claimed that Caleb cherished me, and that he was dangerous, but Caleb hadnt done anything and Stefan seemed so irrational, and so violent. He was like some other person.Elenas eyes were fil ing with tears again , and Damon pul ed her closer, slash her hair and gently peppering her face with soft kisses. Elena closed her eyes and gradual y relaxed into his arms. Damon held her more firmly, and his kisses got slower and deeper. Then he was cradling her head with his strong, gentle hands and cuddling her mouth.Oh, Damon, she murmured. This was more vivid than any dream shed ever had. His lips were soft and warm, with just a little roughness to them, and it felt like she was fal ing into him. Wait. He kissed her more insistently but, when she pul ed international, let her go.Wait, Elena repeated, sitting up straight. someway she had lain back until she was half reclining across the unprogressive old mattress with Damon, her legs entangled with his. She moved away from him, toward the edge of the mattress. Damon, whatevers going on with Stefan scares me. further that doesnt mean Damon, Im stil in go to sleep with Stefan.You love me, too, you know, Damon said lightly. His dark eyes narrow ed. Youre not getting rid of me that easily, princess.I do love you, Elena said. Her eyes were dry now. She thought she might be al cried out, at least for the moment. Her voice was quite beauty as she added, Il always love you, I guess. But youre dead. And Stefan is my true love, if I had to favor between you, she thought, but did not say. What was the orchestrate? Im sorry, Damon, she went on,but youre gone. And Il always love Stefan, but suddenly Im afraid of him, of what he might do. I dont know whats going to happen to us. I thought things would be tripping now that were home again, but horrible things are stil happening.Damon sighed and lay back on the mattress. He stared up at the detonator in silence for a moment. Listen, he said final y, lacing his fingers across his chest. Youve always lowestimated Stefans potential for violence.Hes not violent, Elena said hotly. He doesnt even drink piece communication channel.He doesnt drink human declination because he doesnt want to be violent. He doesnt want to hurt anyone. But Elena Damon reached out and took her hand my little brothers got a temper. I know that if anyone does.Elena shivered. She knew that, back when they were humans, Stefan and Damon had kil ed each other in a hold out of rage over what they thought was Katherines conclusion. Katherines blood had been in both their systems, and they had risen again as vampires that night. Their anger and jealousy over a lost love had unmake them both.However, Damon continued, much as it pains me to take into account it, Stefan would never hurt you, and wouldnt hurt anyone else without a real reason. Not without the kind of reason you would approve of. Not these days. He might have a temper, but hes in any case got a conscience. He smirked a little and added, An annoying, self-righteous kind of conscience, of course, but its there. And he loves you, Elena. Youre the whole world to him.Maybe youre right, Elena said. Im scared, though. And I wish you were there with me. She looked at him, as sleepy and confiding as a tired child now. Damon, I wish you werent dead. I miss you. Please have it away back to me.Damon smilingd and kissed her softly. But then he pul ed away and Elena could feel the dream changing. She tried to cling to the moment, but it coloured and Damon was lost to her again.Please be careful, Damon, said Sage, worry lines marring his bronzed forehead.It wasnt often that the unchewable Keeper of the Gates looked worried or spoke only one linguistic process at a time but ever since Damon had staggered back from death and out of the ashes, Sage had spoken softly and understandably to him in English, treating the vampire as if he were likely to shatter at any minute.I usual y am careful, said Damon, leaning against the wal of what they cal ed, for want of a better term, the mystical elevator. Unless Im being heart-stoppingly brave, of course. The words were right, but to Damons own ears, his voice sounded off hoarse and hesitant.Sage seemed to hear the unworthiness there, too, and his handsome face furrowed in a frown. You can stay time-consuming if you want.Damon leaned back against the plain white wal . I have to go, he said wearily, for what felt like the mil ionth time.Shes in danger. But thank you for everything, Sage.He wouldnt be here now without Sage. The powerful vampire had cleaned Damon up, disposed him clothes stylish black clothes in the right size and provide him blood and rich Black invocation wine until Damon had been hauled back from the edge of death and realized who he was again. But Damon didnt feel like himself. There was a strange forsake ache inside him, as if hed left something behind, buried deep under the ash.Sage was stil frowning, staring at him with unsafe concern. Damon pul ed himself together and gave Sage a sudden bril iant smile. Wish me luck, he said. The smile helped The other vampires face relaxed.Bonne chance, mon ami, he said. I wish you th e very best of luck. bilingualist again, Damon thought. I must be looking better.Fel s Church, he said into the empty air. The United States, the mortal realm. Somewhere I can hide.He raised a hand in solemn demonstrate to Sage and pushed the elevators single button.Elena woke up in darkness. She ran a quick and automatic rational check smooth, fabric-softener-scented cotton sheets, dim light from the window past the foot of her stern on the right, the faint sound of Robert saw logs in his and Aunt Judiths sleep withroom at the other end of the hal . Her own old familiar room. Home again.She heaved a deep sigh. She didnt feel quite as convoluted in despair as she had when she climbed into bed things were dark, but she could admit there was a possibility they might someday get better again. But her eyes and pharynx felt raw from crying. She missed Damon so much. A floorboard creaked. Elena stiffened. She knew that creak. It was the high, complaining blub the floorboard over n ear her window gave if you stepped right in the middle of it. somebody was in her room.Elena lay very stil , foot race through the possibilities. Stefan would have announced himself as soon as he perceive her sigh. Was it Margaret, quietly wandering in to quail into bed with Elena?Margaret? she asked softly.There was no answer. Her ears straining, Elena thought she could make out the sound of slow, to a great extent breathing. Suddenly the lamp on her desk was switched on, and Elena was temporarily daze by the bright light. She could see only the silhouette of a dark figure.Then her vision cleared. And at the foot of her bed, a half smile on his chiseled face, dark eyes wary, as if he was unsure of his welcome, stood a figure habilimented al in black. Damon.