The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 22

Elena couldnt breathe. She could vaguely feel her give tongue to opening and closing, plainly she found she wasnt fitting to say anything. Her hands and feet had asleep(p) numb. Damon gave her an close to diffident smile which was funny, because Damon didnt do shy and shrugged. Wel , princess? You wanted me to be hither with you, didnt you?As if a rubber band dimension her stick out had snapped, Elena leaped out of line and hurtled into Damons arms. ar you legitimate? she verbalise, half sobbing. Is this real? She kissed him fiercely, and he met her kiss with equal fervor. He mat up real, cool skin and leather, the surprising blurriness of his lips beaten(pre no.inal) under hers.Here I am, he murmu florid into her hair as he pul ed her close to him. Its real, I engagement you.Elena stepped back and smacked him hard crossways the face. Damon gl bed at her and reached up to rub his cheek. Ouch, he express, and so cracked a narrow, irritating smile. I providet say t hat was completely unexpected I hire slapped by women to a greater extent lots than youd look at possible tho non a nice welcome for the long-lost love, sweetheart.How could you? Elena verbalize, dry flat and furious.How could you, Damon? Weve al been mourning you. Stefans fal ing apart. reason equal blames herself. I I A share of my heart died. How long render you been reflection us? Didnt you care? Was this al some(prenominal) kind of joke to you?Did you laugh when we cried?Damon winced. Darling, he verbalise. My princess. bent you glad to see me at al ?Of course I am say Elena indignantly. She took a breath and cooled down a petite(a). just at once, Damon, what were you thinking? We al thought you were wipeoutly Permanently dead, not show-up-in-my-bedroom-a-few-days-later carriage-perfectly-healthy dead Whats dismissal on? Did the Guardians do this? They told me they couldnt when I begged them to, that death is permanent for a vampire once it happens.Dam on graced her with a genuine, laughing smile. Wel , you of al tribe ought to k outright that death isnt always permanent.Elena shrugged and captive her arms around herself.They told me that when I came back, it was disparate, she said in a smal vocalize, her emotions zigzagging al constantlyywhere the place. Because youre in shock, a tiny voice at the back of her head said wisely. Mystical stuff, you get laid. My eon wasnt up. Hey She poked him with unrivalled finger, perking up.Are you human race now? I was human when I returned.Damon gave a long, theatrical shudder. immortal forbid. I had teeming of that when that meddling kitsune make me a mortal. Thank heaven or whoever I dont countenance to go looking for an obliging vampire princess to turn me back this time. He grinned slyly at Elena. Im as bloodsucking as ever, darling. He eyed her neck. Speaking of which, Im rather hungryElena smacked him again, though more gently this time.Knock it gain, Damon. git I sit down now? Damon asked and, when she nodded, settled himself on the foot of her bed and drew her down to sit beside him. Elena looked searchingly into his look, indeed gently traced her hand e rattlingplace his sharp cheekbones, his sculpted mouth, his soft antecede hair.You were dead, Damon, she said quietly. I know it. I saw you die.Yes, he said, and sighed. I mat up myself die. It was horribly smartful and it seemed to both go on forever and be over in a few moments. He shuddered. There was a slender cow dung left of me until now then though Elena nodded and Stefan told me, told him, to fly away. And you held him held me and told me to close my eyes. And then that brave little bit of me was gone, too, and until now the pain was gone. And then I came back. Damons dark eyes were wide with remembered wonder.But how? asked Elena.Remember the lead-in bal ?How could I for bother? It was the root of al our problems with the kitsune. It was vaporizationized when I Oh, Damo n, I utilise my Wings of Destruction on the head on the Nether Worlds moon. But they unmake the kitsunes star bal , too, and I had to go to the Guardians to lighten Fel s Church. The Wings of Destruction were akin nothing Ive ever seen or felt up before. She shivered.Ive seen what you did to that moon, Damon said, smiling slightly. Would it make you feel better, my pleasing angel, if you knew that using your Powers same that and destroying the star bal is what relieve me?Dont cal me that, said Elena, scowling. The Guardians were the closest thing she had ever seen to real angels, and she did not lose warm memories of them. How did it save you?Do they explain how ab ridgment works in modern schools? Damon asked with the sneering expression he always wore when he teasingly criticized her world in coincidence to the one he had grown up in. Is it al sex cultivation, empathy, and second-rate novels now, or do they stil tel the children a little close to science? I know th eyve dropped Latin and Greek in favor of planetary house and consciousness-raising. His voice dripped with contempt. Elena told herself not to rise to his bait. kinda she folded her hands neatly in strawman of her in her lap. I think you freshthorn be a few decades out-of-date. But please, O wise one, she said, assume that my education didnt include the connection between ejection seat and rising from the dead, and enlighten me.Nice. Damon smirked. I like to see a young charwoman who is respectful of her elders and betters. Elena cocked an eyebrow at him warningly. Anyway, he continued, the liquid in the star bal , the handsome magic, didnt vanish. Its not that easy to get rid of real y strong magic. As the atmosphere cooled, the magic turned from vapor back into liquid and fel down on me, with the rain of ash. I was soaking in pure Power for hours, gradual y being reborn.Elenas mouth dropped open. Those sneaks, she said indignantly. The Guardians told me you were gone for goo d, and they took al the treasures we bribed them with, too. She thought briefly of the one last treasure she stil had, a pissing bottle ful of the Water of Eternal Youth, unknown high up on the shelf in her closet, and pushed the thought away. She couldnt even sleep together that hidden treasure to herself for more than a moment, for fear the Guardians would realize she had it, and she couldnt use it not yet, maybe not ever. Damon shrugged one shoulder. They do cheat, sometimes, I hear. But its more seeming this time that they thought they were tel ing the truth. They dont know everything, even though they like to pretend they do. And kitsune and vampires are both a little outdoor(a) their area of expertise.He told her how he had woken, buried deep in ash and mud, make his way to the surface, and set aside across the desolate moon, not knowing who he was or what had happened to him, and how he had almost died again, and that sharp had saved him.And then what? Elena asked ea gerly. How did you remember everything? How did you get back to Earth?Wel , said Damon, turning a slight, fond smile on her,thats a funny story. He reached into an midland pocket of his leather jacket and pul ed out a neatly folded white linen hankey. Elena blinked. It looked like the same handkerchief he had attached her in her dream. Damon notice her expression and smiled more widely, as though he knew where she was recognizing it from. He unfolded it and held it out for Elenas inspection.Cradled indoors the handkerchief were two strands of hair. Very familiar hair, Elena realized. She and Bonnie had each cut off a lock of hair and set(p) them on Damons body, wanting to leave a part of themselves with him, since they couldnt take his body off the desolate moon with them. Before her now lay a curling red lock and a waving lucky one, as bright and shiny as if they had just been cut from freshly rinse heads, rather than left on a world with ash fal ing al around.Damon gazed a t the locks with an expression made up of inclination and a little awe. Elena thought that she had never seen such an open, almost hopeful look from him.The Power from the star bal saved these, too, he said.First they were burned almost to ash, but then they regenerated. I held them and studied them and cute them, and you started to come back to me. quick of scent had given me my come across, and it sounded right to me, but I couldnt recal anything else round myself. But as I held these locks of hair, I gradual y remembered who you were, and what we had been finished together, and al the things I He paused. What I knew and felt astir(predicate) you, and then I remembered the little redbird, too, and then everything else came flooding back and I was myself again.He glanced away and lost the bathetic look, smoothing his face into its usual cool expression, as if embarrassed, then folded the locks of hair back interior the handkerchief and tucked it careful y away into his jac ket.Wel , he said briskly, then it was just a matter of having Sage lend me some clothes, fil me in on what I had befuddled, and give me a pertain back to Fel s Church. And now here I am.I bet he was amazed, said Elena, and ecstatic. The vampire Keeper of the provide Between Worlds was a dear partner of Damons, the only friend of Damons she knew of, other than herself. Damons acquaintances tended to be enemies or admirers more often than friends.He was quite pleased, Damon admitted.So you just now made it back to Earth?Damon nodded.Wel , youve missed a lot here, Elena said, launching into an chronicle of the past few days, starting with Celias name written in blood and stopping point on Calebs hospitalization.Wow. Damon let out a low whistle. But I have to assume the problem is more than my little brother acting like a madman with Caleb? Because, you know, that may be unbiased jealousy. Jealousy has always been Stefans biggest sin. He said the last with a smug debase to his lips, and Elena elbowed him gently in the ribs.Dont put Stefan down, she said reprovingly, and smiled to herself. It felt so good to be scolding Damon again. He real y was his own maddening, changeable, wonderful self again. Damon was back.Wait. Oh, no. Youre in danger, too Elena gasped, remembering shortly that he could stil be taken from her.Your name appeared earlier, written in the weeds that were safe clasping Meredith underwater. We didnt know what it could mean, because we thought you were dead. But, since youre alive, it seems youre the next target. She paused.Unless fal ing through the surface of the moon was the attack on you.Dont worry roughly me, Elena. You are credibly right about the attack on the moon being my accident. But they havent been very successful attempts, have they? Damon said serious-minded y. Almost as if whatever this is isnt try very hard to kil us. I have a faint inkling about what might be causing this.You do? asked Elena. Tel me.Damon agitate h is head. Its just a twinkling right now, he said. Let me get some sort of confirmation.But Damon, Elena pleaded, even a glimmer is much more than the rest of us have been able to come up with. Come with me tomorrow morning and tel everyone about it, and we can al work together.Oh, yes, said Damon, with a jeer shudder. You and me and Mutt and the vampire hunter, a close-fitting group. Plus my pious brother and the little red beguile. And the old lady witch and the teacher. No, Im going to do some more digging on my own. And whats more, Elena, he said, hole her with a dark stare, youre not to tel anyone that Im alive. particular(prenominal) y not Stefan.Damon Elena protested. You dont know how short devastated Stefan is, thinking youre dead. We have to let him know youre al right.Damon smiled wryly. I think theres belike a part of Stefan thats glad enough to have me out of the picture. He doesnt have any reason to want me here. Elena shook her head in furious denial, but he we nt on. Its true. But maybe its time for things to be different between us. To that end, I have to show him that I can change. In any case, I cant look into this properly if everyone knows Im around. Keep quiet for now, Elena. She open(a) her mouth to object further, but he silenced her with a quick, fierce kiss. When they broke apart, he said, Promise me for now, and Il promise you that as soon as I exercise this out, you can announce my resurrection to the world.Elena nodded doubtful y. If thats what you real y want, Damon, and you real y think its necessary, she said. But Im not happy about it.Damon got to his feet and patted her shoulder. Things are going to be different now, he said. He looked down at her, his face serious. Im not the same as I was, Elena.Elena nodded again, more firmly this time. Il keep your secret, Damon, she promised.Damon gave her a smal , tight smile, then took terzetto steps toward her open window. In a moment he was gone, and a massive black crow f lew out into the night.