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The full moon was directly overhead when Stefan ca, both frolut of blood he’d taken It had been a long time since he’d let hiraveyard had caught hi his already weakened control He still wasn’t sure where the Power had coirls from his place in the shadohen it had exploded froht between the fear that they would run into the river and the desire to probe this Power and find its source In the end, he had followedher , unable to chance her getting hurt

Soed toward the woods as the hue, but even Stefan’s night senses could not make out what it was He had watched while she and the other two started in the direction of town Then he had turned back to the graveyard

It was eround lay a thin strip of silk that to ordinary eyes would have been gray in the dark But he saw its true color, and as he crushed it between his fingers, bringing it slowly up to touch his lips, he could sulfed hiht, when the cool glow of her es of his consciousness But to be in the same room with her at the school, to feel her presence behind hirance of her skin all around him, was almost more than he could bear

He had heard every soft breath she took, felt her warainst his back, sensed each throb of her sweet pulse And eventually, to his horror, he had found hiue had brushed back and forth over his canine teeth, enjoying the pleasure-pain that was building there, encouraging it He’d breathed her smell into his nostrils deliberately, and let the visions co it all How soft her neck would be, and how his lips wouldtiny kisses here, and here, until he reached the yielding hollow of her throat Hoould nuzzle there, in the place where her heart beat so strongly against the delicate skin And how at last his lips would part, would draw back froers, and-

NoHe’d brought higedly, his body shaking The class had been dismissed, movement was all around hi him too closely

When she had spoken to him, he had been unable to believe that he had to face her while his veins burned and his whole upper jaw ached He’d been afraid for a moment that his control would break, that he would seize her shoulders and take her in front of all of theotten away, only that soy into hard exercise, dimly aware that he must not use the Powers It didn’t matter; even without them he was in every way superior to the mortal boys who coht was sharper, his reflexes faster, his er Presently a hand had clapped hi in his ears:

"Congratulations! Welco into that honest, s face, Stefan had been overcome with shame If you knehat I was, you wouldn’t srimly I’ve won this coirl you love-you do love her, don’t you?-is in ht now

And she had rehts despite all his efforts to banish her that afternoon He had wandered to the graveyard blindly, pulled from the woods by a force he did not understand Once there he had watched her, fighting hie of Power had sent her and her friends running And then he’d co control of himself

He couldn’t remember exactly how it had happened, how he’d let it happen That flare of Power had started it, awakening things inside hi for the chase, for the se triumph of the kill It had been years-centuries-since he’d felt the need with such force His veins had begun burning like fire And all his thoughts had turned red: he could think of nothing else but the hot coppery taste, the primal vibrancy, of blood

With that exciteh hiht have happened if he hadn’t scented the old ht about But as he reached the end of the bridge, his nostrils had flared at the sharp, distinctive odor of human flesh

HumanbloodThe ulti than any liquor, the stea the need

There had been a s stirred And the next instant, Stefan had landed gracefully, catlike, beside it His hand shot out and pulled the rags away, exposing a wizened, blinking face atop a scrawny neck His lips drew back

And then there was no sound but the feeding

Now, as he stu house, he tried not to think about it, and not to think about her-about the girl who tempted him with her warmth, her life She had been the one he truly desired, but he hts before they were started frohtmare come true, and she didn’t even know it

"Who’s there? Is that you, boy?" a cracked voice called sharply One of the second-story doors

opened, and a gray head poked out

"Yes,signora -Mrs Flowers I’m sorry if I disturbed you"

"Ah, it takes more than a creaky floorboard to disturb me You locked the door behind you?"

"Yes,signoraYou’re safe"

"That’s right We need to be safe here You never knohat ht be out there in those woods, do you?" He looked quickly at the sht darting eyes Was there a secret hidden in thenora "

"Good night, boy" She shut the door

In his own roo ceiling

Usually he rested uneasily at night; it was not his natural sleeping tiy to face the sunlight, and the heavy h his eyes did not close, he no longer saw the ashed ceiling above hih hisby the fountain, olden hair How proud he had been to sit with her, to be the one to share her secret

"But can you never go out in sunlight?"

"Ican , yes, as long as I wear this" She held up a s there "But the sun tires "

Stefan looked at her, at the delicacy of her features and the slightness of her body She was allass No, she would never have been strong

"I was often ill as a child," she said softly, her eyes on the play of water in the fountain "The last tieon finally said I would die I re bed, too weak towas too much effort I was so sad to leave the world and so cold, so very cold" She shivered, and then smiled

"But what happened?"

"I woke in theover my bed And then she stepped aside, and I saw the htened His nae say he was evil I cried out to Gudren to saveWhen he put histo killat her in horror and pity, and she sly at him "It was not so terrible after all There was a little pain at first, but that quickly went away And then the feeling was actually pleasant When he gave er than I had for ether until dawn When the surgeon came, he couldn’t believe I was able to sit up and speak Papa said it was a ain from happiness" Her face clouded "I will have to leave my papa sometime soon One day he will realize that since that illness I have not grown an hour older"

"And you never will?"

"No That is the wonder of it, Stefan!" She gazed up at hi forever, and I will never die! Can you iine her as anything other than what she was now: lovely, innocent, perfect "But-you did not find it frightening at first?"

"At first, a little But Gudren showedht While I lay in bed, she brought ht small animals her son trapped"

"Not people?"

Her laughter rang out "Of course not I can get all I need in a night from a dove Gudren says that if I wish to be powerful I should take huest And Klaus used to urge ain But I tell Gudren I do not want power And as for Klaus" She stopped and dropped her eyes, so that heavy lashes lay on her cheek Her voice was very soft as she continued "I do not think it is a thing to be done lightly I will take human blood only when I have found my companion, the one ill be by ravely

Stefan s with pride He could scarcely contain the happiness he felt at that moment

But that was before his brother Damon had returned from the University Before Damon had come back and seen Katherine’s jewel-blue eyes

On his bed in the low-roofed room, Stefan es began to flicker through his limpses of the past that did not form a connected sequence He saw the His brother’s face, twisted into aand dancing as she pirouetted in her nehite gown The glimmer of white behind a lemon tree The feel of a sword in his hand; Giuseppe’s voice shouting froo behind the leain, but this ti on and on, a sound like the grate of broken glass And the lemon tree was closer now

"Da bolt upright on his bed

He ran shaking hands through his hair and steadied his breath A terrible drea ti, indeed, since he’d dreaain in his ain his brother’s laughter

It echoed in hisaware of a conscious decision to ht air Was cool on his cheeks as he looked into the silvery dark

"Da Then he fell into absolute stillness, listening with all his senses

He could feel nothing, no ripple of response Nearby, a pair of night birds rose in flight In the town, ; in the woods, nocturnal anihed and turned back into the roohter; perhaps he’d even been wrong about the raveyard Fell’s Church was still, and peaceful, and he should try to emulate it He needed sleep

September 5 (actually early September 6-about 1:00 ao back to bed soon Just a few , but now the house is quiet So ht that uess

At least I woke up knowing exactly what I’ just sort of sprang into ins to, and her cheeks were flushed with color as she approached the three girls at the table

"Oh, Elena, you’ve got to hear this!"

Elena smiled at her, polite but not too intimate Frances ducked her brown head "Iabout Stefan Salvatore"

"Have a seat," said Elena graciously "But," she added, buttering a roll, "we’re not really interested in the news"