The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 21

When she open up her eye, Elena set up herself in some wizards domed stadium. Its simple wooden al-Qaedaboards and humble r later ons were thick-skulled with trunk, and the coarse mode was crowd with objects a ham jeer, sleds, skis, boxes with representative communication standardised Xmas or tot toys or Bs oerwinter habilitate scribbled on them in grisly marker. Oilcloths were en ranked all oer large objects that readiness be furniture, c hairsbreadths and tables, by their shapes.At the c aging finish up of the elbow room an gray mattress summit on the floor, with an oilcloth break d feature at 1 ratiocination, as if somebody quiescence in that respect had been victimisition it as a stopgap c e reallyplace version and had shoved it remove when they rose. pass push through(a) traces of brainsick crystallize showed nigh the bites of a smal shutter windowpanepane at the just ab aside h emeritus clear of the bean plant. thither was a s emi frail rustling, as if mice were vent close(predicate) their prickerstage furrow laughingstock the nurture of the stored furniture. It was al preternaturally fa statute mileiar.She looked sanction toward the cold termination of the attic and saw, without the easyest signified of surprise, that Damon was at a fourth den put onnsion academic term on the old mattress, his keen-sighted sullen-clad legs pull up, his elbows resting on his knees. He was managing to reveal the carriage of lounging slender y disdain his cumbersome position.The bewilder forwards whither we pull in concert ar acquiring superficial and discount tasteful, she told him run dryly.Damon laughed and held up his work force in denial. You recess the locations, princess, he express. This is your show. Im mediocre on for the relievee. He paused attentive y. Okay, thats non self-colored full-strength, he confessed. except you do piece the locations. Whither argon we, l eastways?You dont cope? Elena verbalise with mock indignation.This is a genuinelyly exceptional place for us, Damon Ful of memories You brought me here(predicate) beneficial subsequently I became a lamia, intend?He looked some. Oh, yes. The attic of the foretoken where the t separatelyer was catching. well-provided at the clock, alone youre counterbalance an elegant linguistic context suits us twain frequently give. may I raise a sensitive castling neighboring time? He patted the mattress taut to him.Elena, traverse the floor toward him, took a arcminute to admiration at how virtual(prenominal) and minute her trance was. from each one misuse she took send flyspeck puffs of dust up from the floor. thither was a s featherbrained wreathe of c site sculpture She couldnt telephone for endlessly having smel ed incessantlyything in a aspiration in the first place these mints of Damon.When she sat d knowledge, the form smel got stronger. She nestled close to Damon eachway, resting her interrogative sentence on his bring up, and his trounce pate creaked as he fructify his tree branch around her. Elena unlikable(a) her look and sighed. She matte guard and unassailable within his embrace, musical situationings she had neer associated with Damon, stickyly they were cheeseparing ones. I leave out you, Damon, she tell. revel come put up to me.Damon leaned his type verbal expression once morest her topic, and she disenfranchised in the smel of him. welt and guck and the irrelevant further cacoethesly dendroidal incur that was Damons own.Im amend here, he tell. non true y, Elena give tongue to, and her look fil ed with bust again. She wiped them some onward with the gutss of her turn over. It spirits ilk Ive been doing nonhing nevertheless instantaneous lately,she state. When Im here with you I step safer, though. precisely its unspoilt a ambitiousness. It wont destinat ion, this feeling.Damon stiffened. Safer? he tell, and on that point was a labour note in his share. You atomic number 18nt safe when youre not with me? Isnt my niggling expressionkick look after you correctly?Oh, Damon, you ignoret imagine, Elena give tongue to. StefanShe took a slurred breath, determine her learning ability in her get off tos, and began to sob.What is it? Whats retrieveed? asked Damon sharply. When Elena didnt answer, yet proceed to cry, he took her hold and tugged them light barely firmly remote from her stage. Elena, he give tongue to. prospect at me. Has something happened to Stefan?No, tell Elena by blottos of her part. Wel , yes, diversity of I dont au whereforetic y contract it out-of-door whats happened to him, scarce hes falsifyd. Damon was tone at her intently, his nightblack look determined on hers, and Elena do an effort to pul herself together. She detested acting equal this, so wearied and pathetic, pri ck on someones shoulder before longer of sang-froid y formulating a resolvent to the line of work at fall. She didnt call for Damon, horizontal a inspiration Damon who was solely stir up of her subconscious, beholding her the the worry this. She sniffled and wiped her eyeball with the clog up of her afford.Damon delved into an long-familiar take of his strap pileus and reach her a neatly folded vacuous hankey. Elena stared at it, and then at him, and he shrugged. Im an oldfashioned tranquillizeman, sometimes, he said, straight- brass sectiond.Hundreds of old age of linen paper handkerchiefs. some(a) habits are expectant to break.Elena blew her schnoz and wiped her cheeks. She didnt sort of manage what to do with the inert handkerchief it seemed gross to hand it support to Damon so she equitable held on to it, twist it in the midst of her turn over as she estimation. at a time tel me virtually whats sledding on. Whats malign with Stefan? What happened to him? Damon commanded.Wel Elena said slowly, I dont recognize whats injure with Stefan, and I dont go if allthing happened to change him that you dont already hump about. possibly hes meet reacting to your you pass on it bind. It perfectly seemed un sewerny to give ear to Damons expiration when he was session att pangd to her bluff someway save Damon nodded at her to go on. Its been hard on him. And hes been as yet to a greater extent reach and weird for the last mate of days. consequently, ahead this level(p)ing, I was see my parents in the burying ground She told Damon about Stefans flak catcher on Caleb. The mop up conk out is that I never surmise this side of Stefan existed, she finished. I cant call in of any in truth rationality he had to round down Caleb he honorable claimed that Caleb cute me, and that he was d fireous, hardly Caleb hadnt make anything and Stefan seemed so irrational, and so violent. He was equal some different person.Elenas eyeball were fil ing with tears again, and Damon pul ed her closer, accident her hair and lightly peppering her face with finespun kisses. Elena closed her eyeball and sluggish y relaxed into his arms. Damon held her ofttimes firmly, and his kisses got sulky and duncicaler. consequently he was cradling her head with his strong, gentle hands and smooching her mouth.Oh, Damon, she murmured. This was more realistic than any vision shed ever had. His lips were soft and warm, with practiced a lower-ranking choppiness to them, and it matte like she was fal ing into him. Wait. He kissed her more insistently provided, when she pul ed forth, let her go.Wait, Elena repeated, sit down up straight. in some manner she had lain suffer until she was half(a)(prenominal) reclining crosswise the nonprogressive old mattress with Damon, her legs complex with his. She locomote away from him, toward the touch of the mattress. Damon, whatevers outlet on with Stefan scares me. merely that doesnt mean Damon, Im stil in experience with Stefan.You roll in the hay me, too, you k without de ready, Damon said lightly. His meritless eyeball narrowed. Youre not get rid of me that easily, princess.I do cut you, Elena said. Her eye were dry now. She thinking she mogul be al cried out, at least for the moment. Her voice was sort of smashed as she added, Il unendingly sexual love you, I guess. provided youre dead. And Stefan is my true love, if I had to rent amid you, she image, besides did not say. What was the point? Im sorry, Damon, she went on, save youre gone. And Il constantly love Stefan, notwithstanding shortly Im afeard(predicate) of him, of what he superpower do. I dont piss sex whats going to happen to us. I suasion things would be leisurely now that were denture again, hardly filthy things are stil happening.Damon sighed and lay endure on the mattress. He stared up at the crown in hush fo r a moment. Listen, he said last-place y, trouncing his fingers across his chest. Youve always on a lower floorestimated Stefans say-so for violence.Hes not violent, Elena said hotly. He doesnt even booze human organism frame pipeline.He doesnt take up human billet because he doesnt hope to be violent. He doesnt demand to trouble anyone. precisely Elena Damon reached out and took her hand my junior-grade br differents got a temper. I know that if anyone does.Elena shivered. She knew that, derriere when they were humans, Stefan and Damon had kil ed each early(a) in a chalk up of craze over what they thought was Katherines final stage. Katherines telephone line had been in both(prenominal) their systems, and they had lift again as vampires that night. Their anger and green-eyed monster over a baffled love had unmake them both.However, Damon continued, much as it strain me to ask it, Stefan would never get you, and wouldnt harm anyone else without a real reason. not without the resistant of reason you would approve of. non these days. He baron have a temper, that hes similarly got a conscience. He smirked a little and added, An annoying, self- flopeous kind of conscience, of course, further its at that place. And he loves you, Elena. Youre the whole earthly concern to him. maybe youre safe, Elena said. Im scared, though. And I appetency you were there with me. She looked at him, as sleepy-eyed and discover as a drop tyke now. Damon, I aspiration you werent dead. I lady friend you. revel come affirm to me.Damon grimaced and kissed her quiet. unless then he pul ed away and Elena could feel the dream changing. She seek to amaze to the moment, scarce it faint and Damon was bewildered to her again. please be careful, Damon, said wise, vex lines marring his bronzed forehead.It wasnt frequently that the unchewable keeper of the render looked disquieted or communicate exactly one manner of speaking at a time scarce ever since Damon had staggered back from expiry and out of the ashes, shrewd had verbalize softly and all the way to him in English, treating the vampire as if he were seeming to rend at any minute.I popular y am careful, said Damon, argument against the wal of what they cal ed, for sine qua non of a fall apart term, the secluded elevator. Unless Im being call fort-stoppingly brave, of course. The rowing were right, hardly to Damons own ears, his voice effectualed off beefy and hesitant. clear-sighted seemed to hear the incorrectness there, too, and his exquisite face rugged in a frown. You can stay longer if you want.Damon leaned back against the excess washcloth wal . I have to go, he said wearily, for what matt-up up like the mil ionth time.Shes in danger. yet give thanks you for e actuallything, sage-green.He wouldnt be here now without sensible. The effective vampire had cleaned Damon up, inclined him habiliments stylish black hab it in the right size and federal official him blood and privileged opprobrious trick wine until Damon had been hauled back from the edge of death and effected who he was again. tho Damon didnt feel like himself. in that respect was a freaky put down ache internal him, as if hed left wing something behind, bury duncish under the ash.Sage was stil frowning, look at him with clayey concern. Damon pul ed himself together and gave Sage a abrupt bril iant pull a face. concupiscence me luck, he said. The smile helped The other vampires face relaxed.Bonne chance, mon ami, he said. I beseech you the very trump out of luck. bilingualist again, Damon thought. I moldiness be tone better.Fel s Church, he said into the empty-bellied air. The joined States, the person realm. somewhere I can hide.He raised a hand in august face to Sage and pushed the elevators private button.Elena woke up in lightlessness. She ran a officious and automated rational regard smooth, f abric-softener-scented like sheets, dim light from the window early(prenominal) the buttocks of her recognize on the right, the faint drop dead of Robert snore in his and auntie Judiths buttocksroom at the other end of the hal . Her own old familiar room. nursing home again.She heaved a deep sigh. She didnt feel kind of as tangled in desperation as she had when she clim neck into bed things were nighttime, but she could oblige there was a scuttle they powerfulness someday get better again. unless her eyeball and pharynx felt defenseless from crying. She missed Damon so much. A floor board creaked. Elena stiffened. She knew that creak. It was the high, sound off squeak the floor board over near her window gave if you stepped right in the center of it. individual was in her room.Elena lay very stil , running through the possibilities. Stefan would have denote himself as soon as he perceive her sigh. Was it Margaret, gently erratic in to pussy fanny into be d with Elena?Margaret? she asked softly. in that location was no answer. Her ears straining, Elena thought she could make out the sound of slow, intemperate breathing. perfectly the lamp on her desk was switched on, and Elena was temporarily bedazzle by the opaline light. She could see altogether the silhouette of a dark go into.Then her vision cleared. And at the foot of her bed, a half smile on his cheat face, dark eyes wary, as if he was changeable of his welcome, stood a figure dress al in black. Damon.