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Elena felt her flesh creep at the words
"You don’t mean that," she said shakily She remembered what she had seen on the roof, the blood smeared on Stefan’s lips, and she forced herself not to recoil from him "Stefan, I know you You couldn’t have done that"
He ignored her protestations, just went on staring with eyes that burned like the green ice at the bottoh her, into soht, I hoped against hope that she would coes in myself I could see better in the dark; it seeer than ever before, full of sory
"It was a hunger I had never iined At dinner I found that ordinary food and drink did nothing to satisfy it I couldn’t understand that And then I saw the white neck of one of the serving girls, and I knehy" He drew a long breath, his eyes dark and tortured "That night, I resisted the need, though it took allshe would coh "If a creature like ers were nuhten them, to send him reassurance "Go on, Stefan"
He had no trouble speaking now He seeotten her presence, as if he were telling this story to hier It was as if my own veins were dry and cracked, desperate for
"I went to Katherine’s chambers I meant to ask her, to plead with her-" His voice cracked He paused and then went on "But Da outside her roolow of his skin, the spring in his step, toldas the cat who’s had the cream
"But he hadn’t had Katherine ’Knock all you like,’ he said to on inside won’t let you past I’ve tried already Shall we overpower her, you and I?’
"I wouldn’t answer him The look on his face, that sly, self-satisfied look, repelled ave another hu to say, ’to wake the dead’ But the dead aren’t so hard to wake after all, are they?" After a moment, he went on
"The maid, Gudren, opened the door She had a face like a flat white plate, and eyes like black glass I asked her if I could see her mistress I expected to be told that Katherine was asleep, but instead Gudren just looked at me, then at Damon over my shoulder
" ’I would not tellhim ,’ she said at last, ’but I will tell you My lady Katerina is not within She went out early this ardens She said she had ht’
"I was surprised ’Early this ?’ I said
" ’Yes,’ she replied She looked at both Da ’My fully ’All night long, she wept’
"When she said that, a strange feeling carief that Katherine should be so unhappy It was fear I forgot ot reat driving urgency I turned to Damon and told him that we had to find Katherine, and to an to search the gardens, calling Katherine’s na looked like that day The sun was shining on the high cypress trees and the pines in the garden Daher"
Elena could feel the trehtly gripping fingers He was breathing rapidly but shallowly
"We had alardens when I remembered a place that Katherine had loved It was a little way out onto the grounds, a loall beside a leot closer, I stopped shouting I felt a fear-a terrible preo-"
"Stefan!" said Elena He was hurting her, his fingers biting into her own, crushing the shudders "Stefan, please!"
But he gave no sign that he heard her "It was like-a night so slowly I couldn’tWith each step, the fear grew stronger I could so there-I don’t want to see it-"
His voice had becoasps His eyes ide and dilated, like a terrified child’s Elena gripped his viselike fingers with her other hand, enfolding theht You’re not there You’re here with me"
"I don’t want to see it-but I can’t help it There’s so white under the tree Don’t make me look at it!"
"Stefan, Stefan, look atHis words ca spaset theo any closer-but I do I see the tree, the wall And that white Behind the tree White with gold underneath And then I know, I know, and I’ toward it because it’s her dress Katherine’s white dress And I get around the tree and I see it on the ground and it’s true It’s Katherine’s dress,"-his voice rose and broke in uniinable horror-"but Katherine isn’t in it"
Elena felt a chill, as if her body had been plunged into ice water Her skin rose in goose-flesh, and she tried to speak to hi on as if he could keep the terror away if he kept on talking
"Katherine isn’t there, so round and it’s full of ashes Like the ashes in the hearth, just like that, only these s me sick and faint Beside the sleeve of the dress is a piece of parch A ring with a blue stone, Katherine’s ring Katherine’s ring" Suddenly, he called out in a terrible voice, "Katherine, what have youdone ?" Then he fell to his knees, releasing Elena’s fingers at last, to bury his face in his hands
Elena held hi sobs She held his shoulders, pulling hi off," she whispered It was not a question "She exposed herself to the sun"
His harsh sobs went on and on, as she held hi shoulders Sheaway her own horror And, presently, he quieted and lifted his head He spoke thickly, but he seemed to have returned to the present, to have come back
"The parchment was a note, forto have both of us It said-she couldn’t bear to be the cause of strife between us She hoped that once she was gone ould no longer hate each other She did it to bring us together"
"Oh, Stefan," whispered Elena She felt burning tears fill her own eyes in sympathy "Oh, Stefan, I’m so sorry But don’t you see, after all this ti? It was selfish, even, and it washer choice In a way, it had nothing to do with you, or with Damon"
Stefan shook his head as if to shake off the truth of the words "She gave her life for that We killed her" He was sitting up now But his eyes were still dilated, great disks of black, and he had the look of a small bewildered boy
"Damon came up behind me He took the note and read it And then-I think he went , and he tried to take it He shouldn’t have We struggled We said terrible things to each other We each blamed the other for what had happened I don’t reot back to the house, but suddenly I had ant face forever, to kill hiht harder, to finish it before he reached us
"And ell er, and that day he seeedfrouard Then I felt it enter hast, but he went on without pause "I felt the pain of the steel, I felt it stab through h, a hard thrust And then the strength poured out of round"
He looked up at Elena and finished simply, "And that is how I died"
Elena sat frozen, as if the ice she’d felt in her chest earlier tonight had flooded out and trapped her
"Damon came and stood over me and bent down I could hear my father’s cries from far away, and screams from the household, but all I could see was Daht I wanted to hurt hi he had done to me, and to Katherine" Stefan was quiet a moment, and then he said, almost dreamily, "And so I lifted th, I stabbed h the heart"
The storh the brokenElena could hear soft night noises, the chirp of crickets, the wind sifting through trees In Stefan’s roo more until I woke up in my tomb," said Stefan He leaned back, away from her, and shut his eyes His face was pinched and weary, but that awful childlike dreaone
"Both Dah of Katherine’s blood to keep us froether in our to, laid on slabs side by side We were too weak to hurt each other anyh And ere confused I called to Daht
"Fortunately, we had been buried with the rings Katherine had given us And I found her ring in my pocket" As if unconsciously, Stefan reached up to stroke the golden circlet "I suppose they thought she had given it to o hoht of me and ran to fetch a priest I ran, too Into the only place where I was safe, into the dark
"And that is where I’ve stayed ever since It’s where I belong, Elena I killed Katherine with my pride and my jealousy, and I killed Damon with my hatred But I did worse than kill my brother I damned him
"If he hadn’t died then, with Katherine’s blood so strong in his veins, he would have had a chance In tiroeaker, and then passed away He would have beco hiht I took away his only chance of salvation"
Stefan laughed bitterly "Do you knohat the name Salvatore means in Italian, Elena? It means salvation, savior I’m named that, and for St Stephen, the first Christian martyr And I damned my brother to hell"
"No," said Elena And then, in a stronger voice, she said, "No, Stefan He damned himself He killedyouBut what happened to him after that?"
"For a while he joined one of the Free Companies, ruthless mercenaries whose business was to rob and plunder He wandered across the country with the the blood of his victiates by then, half starved, preying on ani about Damon Then one day I heard his voice in er than I, because he was drinking huest life essence, and their blood gives power And when they’re killed, soest of all It’s as if in those last le the soul is the most vibrant Because Damon killed humans, he was able to draw on the Powers more than I was"
"What powers?" said Elena A thought was growing in her th, as you said, and quickness A sharpening of all the senses, especially at night Those are the basics We can also feel minds We can sense their presence, and sohts We can cast confusion about weaker minds, either to overwhelm theh hue our shapes, becoer all the Powers become"
"Da He said he was now the condottieri of his own ’ co back to Florence He said that if I was there when he arrived he would kill me I believed him, and I left I’ve seen him once or twice since then The threat is always the same, and he’s always more powerful Dalory in its darkest side"
"But it’s ht that I could conquer it, but I rong That’s why I caht if I settled in soht escape the darkness And instead, tonight, I killed a man"
" No," said Elena forcefully "I don’t believe that, Stefan" His story had filled her with horror and pity and fear, too She adust had vanished, and there was one thing she was sure about Stefan wasn’t a ue with Tanner?"