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Elena had a feeling she couldn’t quite describe It wasn’t letdown It waslet up For what see for Stefan

But now she had hi bath while she insisted on scrubbing hiently with all sorts of brushes and pumice stones, and then a shower, and then a rather cra into the silky soft dark shock - a little longer than he usually kept it - that she knew He hadn’t had energy for frivolities like keeping his hair short and clean before Elena understood that

And nowthere were no guards or kitsune around to spy on the to keep them fro each other, Elena always uard and ready to try to support Stefan’s lanky weight But they could not be playful now

The shower’s spray had been very helpful, too - at concealing the teardrops that kept flowing down Elena’s cheeks She could - oh, dear heaven - count and feel each one of his ribs He was just bones and skin, her beautiful Stefan, but his green eyes were alive, sparkling and dancing in his pale face

After they were dressed in nightclothes they siether, both breathing - Stefan had got into the habit fro to eke out the small amount of nutrition he received - in synchronicity, and both feeling the other’s warm body beside theroped for Elena’s hand, and catching it, held it in both of his, turning it over wonderingly

Elena ing and sing, trying to make a start in a conversation, felt herself practically radiating bliss Oh, I never want anything h she would want to talk, and to hold, and to kiss, and to feed Stefan But if someone had asked her if she would have accepted just this, sitting together, co by touch and love alone, she would have accepted it

Before she knew it, she was talking, words that came like bubbles out of ht that soht lose this time That I’d won sowould teach me a lesson and youwouldn’tover her hand, bending industriously to kiss each separate finger "You call ’winning’ dying in pain and sunlight to save my worthless life - and my even more worthless brother’s?"

"I call this a better kind of winning," Elena ad Any eon"

Stefan winced, but Elena had to finish her thought "Even there, to look in your eyes, to touch your hand, to know that you were looking at, in my book"

Stefan lifted his eyes to hers In the direen looked suddenly dark and ," he whispered "Because I alorious golden cloud of hair, but an aura that isineffable Indescribable Beyond any words"

Elena had thought they would sit and si in each other’s eyes, but that wasn’t happening Stefan’s expression had slipped and Elena realized how close to bloodlust - and to death - he still really was

Hurriedly, Elena pulled her damp hair to one side of her neck, and then she leaned back, knowing Stefan would catch her

He did this, but although Elena tilted her chin back, he tilted it down in his two hands to look at her

"Do you kno much I love you?" he asked

His entire face was"I don’t think you do," he whispered "I’ve watched and watched how you illing to do anything, anything to save mebut I don’t think you knoup, Elena"

Delicious shivers were going down Elena’s spine

"Then you’d better show ht not believe that you mean it - "

"I’ll show you what I mean," Stefan whispered back But when he bent down it was to kiss her softly The feelings inside Elena - that this starving creature wanted to kiss her instead of going at once for her throat, reached a peak that she could not explain in thoughts or words, but only by drawing Stefan’s head so that his mouth rested on her neck

"Please," she said "Oh, Stefan, please"

Then she felt the quick sacrificial pains, and then Stefan was drinking her blood, and her hted room, no its nest and its mate and swooped up and up and up to at last reach unity with its best-beloved