It was very dark as she crossed the quad, the moon hovering low over the roofs of campus. Elena hurried, not sure if it was the chill in the air or the tingling feeling urging her on that was making her shiver.
That pull got stronger as she left campus and ventured into the woods. Even without switching on the flashlight in her pocket, Elena found herself as sure-footed as if it were broad daylight.
The sense of wrongness grew stronger and stronger. Elena's heart was pounding. Maybe she should have told someone what was going on, she thought. At least she could have left a note. Would Stefan be able to find her if she didn't come back? What if, alone in the forest, she met Klaus? Could her Power protect her then?
Suddenly, with a sharp shock, the pulling feeling in her chest became intense, suffocating, and just as suddenly, left her. Something moved in the darkness in front of her, and Elena switched on her flashlight.
Seated on a log in the middle of the forest, in the dark, was Damon. His eyes glittered beetle-black in the glow of the flashlight.
Damon. Seeing him was like a kick in the stomach, and Elena gasped. Damon. She'd spent more than a year wrapped up with him, focused on Damon and Stefan and herself and the twisted, complicated relationships between them all. Then, with no warning, he'd been gone.
And now, here he was.
He looked . . . well, he looked as touchable as always, all smooth skin and sleek hair, powerful, lean muscles. Like a wild animal she wanted to stroke while knowing it was too dangerous to touch. She'd made her choice between the brothers and she was purely, simply glad about it: Stefan was the one she wanted. But that didn't mean she was blind to Damon's beauty.
But, touchable or not, Damon's face looked as hard now as if it had been carved from white marble. He turned his unfathomable eyes toward her, raising a hand to block the flashlight's beam.
"Damon?" Elena asked uncertainly, lowering the flashlight. Usually, something in Damon seemed to soften when he saw her, but now he stiffened and stayed silent.
After a moment, she reached inside herself, pulled at that new Power she'd found, and tried to see Damon's aura.
Oh. This was really bad. There was a dark cloud around Damon. It wasn't simple evil, but there was evil in it, and pain, and something else - a sort of dull distance, as if he was numbing himself against some hurt. Black and gray and a curious dull blue swirled around him, tendrils shooting out unexpectedly and then pulling back in so close to his body she could barely see him. Damon wasn't moving a muscle as he stared at her, but his aura was agitated.
And winding through everything was a fine net of that same dried-blood color that had permeated the aura of the vampire Stefan had killed earlier that night.
"Were you just feeding on someone?" she asked him abruptly. Would that explain the strength of the pull, the wrongness, she'd felt on the way here?
Damon smirked a little and cocked his head, studying her. When the pause had gone on long enough that Elena was sure he wasn't going to answer, he shrugged one shoulder indifferently and said, "It doesn't really matter, does it?"
"Damon, you can't just - " Elena began, but Damon cut her off.
"This is who I am, Elena," he said in the same flat, indifferent voice. "If you've thought differently, you were lying to yourself, because I never lied to you about it."
Elena sank down on the log beside him, resting the flashlight between them, and took Damon's hand. He stiffened, but didn't immediately pull away. "You know I care about you, right?" she asked him. "No matter what. I always will."
Damon stared at her, his dark eyes cold, and then deliberately began untangling his fingers from hers, his hands cool and firm as he pushed her away. "You've made your choice, Elena," he said. "I'm sure Stefan's waiting for you."
Elena shifted away from him, since that was what Damon seemed to want, and put her hands in her lap. "Stefan cares about you," she told him. "I love Stefan, but I need you, too. We both do."
Damon's mouth twisted. "Well, you can't always get everything you want, can you, princess?" he said, a mocking bite to his words. "Like I told Stefan, I'm done."
She stared at him and pushed herself, trying to see his aura again. Using her new Power so much today was like straining muscles she'd never known she had. When she managed it once more, she flinched: Damon's aura had gotten darker as they talked, and was now a stormy gray shot with red and black, a sullen cloud thick around him. The blue had been swallowed by the darker colors.
"I can see your aura, Damon," she said. "I've got Power now." Damon frowned. "It's dark, but there's still good in you." Surely there must be. She didn't know if she could read it in his aura - she didn't know enough about auras yet; she needed to learn - but she knew Damon. He was complicated and selfish and mercurial, but there would always be good in him. "Please, come back to us."
Damon's face was still turned away from her, his eyes fixed on something out in the darkness that Elena couldn't see. Sliding to her knees next to the log, Elena put her hands on his cheeks and turned his face toward her. The ground was freezing and there was a stone digging into her leg, but it didn't matter. "Please, Damon," she said. "You're the one doing this. It doesn't have to be this way." He glared back at her mutely. "Damon," she said, her eyes stinging. "Please."
Damon stood up abruptly, pushing her away, and Elena lost her balance, falling backward onto the hard ground. Scrambling up, she brushed herself off and grabbed the flashlight. "Fine," she said. "I'll go, if that's what you want. But listen to me." She made an effort to soften her voice again. "Don't do anything you'll regret, no matter how angry you are at me. When you're ready, we'll be waiting for you. We love you. Stefan and I both love you. And it may not be the way you want me to care about you, but it's worth something."