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Elena had gone into the bathroory

She wasn’t quite sure how the transfor the scratches on her face and arms, annoyed at the lack of a mirror and at the fact she’d left her purse in Tyler’s convertible, she startedfeeling again And what she felt was anger

Da her life Daallantry, and for the walls around hiher than ever

She pulled the re bobby pins out of her hair and used theether Then she ran through her loosened hair quickly with an engraved bone comb she found by the sink She cah and her eyes narrowed

He hadn’t put his coat back on He was standing by thein his white sweater with bowed head, tense, waiting Without lifting his head, he gestured to a length of dark velvet laid over the back of a chair

"You ht want to put that on over your dress"

It was a full-length cloak, very rich and soft, with a hood Elena pulled the heavy material around her shoulders But she was not ift; she noticed that Stefan hadn’t co

Deliberately, she invaded his territorial space, pulling the cloak , even at that moment, a sensual appreciation of the way the folds fell about her, trailing behind her on the floor She walked up to hiany dresser by the

On it lay a wicked-looking dagger with an ivory hilt and a beautiful agate cup olden sphere with soold coins

She picked up one of the coins, partly because it was interesting and partly because she kneould upset his "What’s this?"

It was a moment before he answered Then he said:

"A gold florin A Florentine coin"

"And what’s this?"

"A German pendant watch Late fifteenth century," he said distractedly He added, "Elena-"

She reached for a sed lid "What about this? Does it open?"

"No" He had the reflexes of a cat; his hand slapped over the coffer, holding the lid down "That’s private," he said, the strain obvious in his voice

She noticed that his handiron lid and not with her flesh She lifted her fingers, and he drew back at once

Suddenly, her anger was too great to hold in any longer "Careful," she said savagely "Don’t touch et a disease"

He turned away toward the

And yet even as sheback to the center of the roo her reflection And she knew, suddenly, what sheover the blackness of the cape, one white hand holding the velvet closed at her throat A ravaged princess pacing in her tower

She tilted her head far back to look at the trapdoor in the ceiling, and heard a soft, distinct intake of breath When she turned, his gaze was fixed on her exposed throat; the look in his eyes confused her But the nexther out

"I think," he said, "that I had better get you home"

In that instant, she wanted to hurt him, to make him feel as bad as he’d made her feel But she also wanted the truth She was tired of this ga to read Stefan Salvatore’sand yet a wonderful relief to hear her own voice saying the words she’d been thinking so long

"Why do you hate me?" He stared at her For a moment he couldn’t seem to find words Then he said, "I don’t hate you"

"You do," said Elena "I know it’s not not good rateful to you for saving ht, but I don’t care about that, either I didn’t ask you to save raveyard in the first place And I certainly don’t understand why you did it, considering the way you feel abouthis head, but his voice was soft "I don’t hate you"

"Fro, you’ve avoided me as if I were were some kind of leper I tried to be friendly to you, and you threw it back in entleman does when so to say so now, but she swept on, heedless "You’ve snubbed me in public time after time; you’ve hu to me now if it hadn’t been a et a word out of you? Does someone have to nearly be murdered?

"And even now," she continued bitterly, "you don’t want et anywhere near you What’s the matter with you, Stefan Salvatore, that you have to live this way? That you have to build walls against other people to keep the with you ?"

He was silent now, his face averted She took a deep breath and then straightened her shoulders, holding her head up even though her eyes were sore and burning "And what’s wrong withme ," she added, more quietly, "that you can’t even look at me, but you can let Caroline Forbes fall all over you? I have a right to know that, at least I won’t ever bother you again, I won’t even talk to you at school, but I want to know the truth before I go Why do you hate me so much, Stefan?"

Slowly, he turned and raised his head His eyes were bleak, sightless, and so twisted in Elena at the pain she saw on his face

His voice was still controlled-but barely She could hear the effort it cost him to keep it steady

"Yes," he said, "I think you do have a right to know Elena" He looked at her then, ht, That bad? What could be as bad as that? "I don’t hate you," he continued, pronouncing each word carefully, distinctly "I’ve never hated you But you remind me of someone"

Elena was taken aback Whatever she’d expected, it wasn’t this "I remind you of someone else you know?"

"Of someone I knew," he said quietly "But," he added slowly, as if puzzling so out for himself, "you’re not like her, really She looked like you, but she was fragile, delicate Vulnerable Inside as well as out"

"And I’m not"

He h if there had been any huhter You are yourself"

Elena was silent for athe pain on his face "You were very close to her?"

"Yes"

"What happened?"

There was a long pause, so long that Elena thought he wasn’t going to answer her But at last he said, "She died"

Elena let out a treer folded up and disappeared from under her "Thatof the white Gilbert headstone arass "I’ His face had closed again, and he see terrible and heartbreaking that only he could see But there was not just grief in his expression Through the walls, through all his tre control, she could see the tortured look of unbearable guilt and loneliness A look so lost and haunted that she had

"Stefan," she whispered He didn’t seem to hear her; he seemed to be adrift in his oorld ofa hand on his arm "Stefan, I kno it can hurt-"

"You can’t know," he exploded, all his quietness erupting into white rage He looked down at her hand as if just realizing it was there, as if infuriated at her effrontery in touching hireen eyes were dilated and dark as he shook her hand off, flinging a hand up to bar her froain-

-and sohtly interlocked with hers, hanging on for dear life He looked down at their locked hands in bewilderers to her face

"Elena" he whispered

And then she saw it, the anguish shattering his gaze, as if he sier The defeat as the walls finally crumbled and she saas underneath

And then, helplessly, he bent his head down to her lips

"Wait-stop here," said Bonnie "I thought I saw so"

Matt’s battered Ford slowed, edging toward the side of the road, where brali toward them

"Oh, my God," said Meredith "It’s Vickie Bennett"

The girl stuhts and stood there, wavering, as Matt hit the brakes Her light-brown hair was tangled and in disarray, and her eyes stared glassily out of a face that was s only a thin white slip

"Get her in the car," said Matt Meredith was already opening the car door She juirl

"Vickie, are you all right? What happened to you?"

Vickie ht ahead Then she suddenly see her nails into Meredith’s arms

"Get out of here," she said, her eyes filled with desperate intensity, her voice strange and thick, as if she had soet out of here! It’s co? Vickie, where is Elena?"

"Get outnow"

Meredith looked down the road, then led the shaking girl back to the car "We’ll take you away," she said, "but you have to tell us what’s happened Bonnie, give "

"She’s been hurt," said Matt gri The question is, where are the others? Vickie, was Elena with you?"

Vickie sobbed, putting her hands over her face as Meredith settled Bonnie’s iridescent pink wrap around her shoulders "No Dick," she said indistinctly It seemed to hurt her to speak "We were in the church it was horrible It came like mist all around DarkThey burnt me"

"She’s delirious," said Bonnie "Or hysterical, or whatever you call it"