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Nightfall (The Vampire Diaries: The Return #1) Page 79
Author: L.J. Smith

What about me?Misao was trying to curb furious and sound pathetic, but she really wasn't very good at it.

"You're not cute, either," Damon said, recklessly. He could get to like this super-Power thing. "But if you mean, when do you get out, it's when I get Elena back. Safe and healthy, with all her bits attached."

He left her cursing. He wanted to get Shinichi to wherever they had to go while the fox was still dazed and in pain.

Elena was counting. Go straight one, go straight two - untangle crutch from creeper, three, four, go straight five - it was definitely getting darker now, go straight six, caught by something in hair,yank , seven, eight, go straight - damn! A fallen tree. Too high to scramble over. She'd have to go around it. All right, to the right, one, two, three - a long tree - seven steps. Seven steps back - now,sharp right turn and keep walking. Much as you'd like to, you can't count any of those steps. So you're at nine. Straighten yourself because the tree was perpendicular - dear heaven, it's pitch dark now. Call that eleven and -

- she was flying. What had caused her crutch to slip, she didn't know, couldn't tell. It was too dark to go frisking around, maybe finding herself a case of poison oak. What she had to do was to think about things, to think so that this all-pervading hellish pain in her left leg would quiet down. It hadn't helped her right arm either - that instinctive windmilling, trying to catch something and save herself. God, that fall had hurt. The whole side of her body hurt so much -

But she had to get to civilization because she believed only civilization could help Matt.

You have to get up again, Elena.

I'mdoing it!

Now - she couldn't see anything, but she had a pretty good idea which way she'd been pointed when she'd fallen. And if she was wrong, she would hit the road and be able to backtrack.

Twelve, thirteen - she kept counting, kept talking to herself. When she reached twenty she felt relief and joy. Any minute now, she'd hit the driveway.

Any minute now, she'd hit it.

It was pitch black out, but she was careful to scuff the ground so she would know, the minute she hit it.

Any...minute...now...

When Elena reached forty she knew she was in trouble.

But where could she have gone so far wrong? Every time some small obstacle had made her turn right, she'd turned carefully left the next time. And there was that whole line of landmarks in her way, the house, the barn, the small cornfield. How could she have gotten lost?How? It had only been half a minute in the forest...only a few steps in the Old Wood.

Even the trees were changing. Where she had been, near the road, most of the trees had been hickory or tulip. Now she was in a thicket of white oaks and red oaks...and conifers.

Old oaks...and on the ground, needles and leaves that muffled her foot-hops into soundlessness.

Soundlessness...but she needed help!

"Mrs. Dunstan! Mr. Dunstan! Kristin! Jake!" She threw the names out into a world that was doing its best to muffle her voice. In fact, in the darkness she could discern a certain swirling wispy grayness that seemed to be - yes - it was fog.

"Mrs. Dunstaa - a-aan! Mr. Dunstaa-aa-an! Kriiiissstiiiinnn! Jaaa-aaake!"

She needed shelter; she needed help. Everything hurt, most of all her left leg and right shoulder. She could just imagine what a sight she would make: covered in mud and leaves from falling every few feet, her hair in a wild mop from being caught on trees, blood everywhere....

One good thing: she certainly didn't look like Elena Gilbert. Elena Gilbert had long silky hair that was always perfectly coifed or charminglydishabille . Elena Gilbert set the fashions in Fell's Church and would never be seen wearing a torn camisole and jeans covered with mud. Whoever they thought this forlorn stranger was, they wouldn't think she was Elena.

But the forlorn stranger was feeling a sudden qualm. She'd walked through woods all her life and never had her hair caught once. Oh, of course she had been able to see then, but she didn't remember having to step out of her way often to avoid it.

Now, it was as if the trees were deliberately reaching down to catch and snag her hair. She had to hold her body clumsily still and try to whip her head away in the worst cases - she couldn't manage to stay upright and get the tendril torn out as well.

But painful as the tearing at her hair was, nothing scared her like the grabbing at her legs.

Elena had grown up playing in this forest, and there had always been plenty of room to walk without hurting herself. But now...things were reaching out, fibrous tendrils were grabbing at her ankle just where it hurt most. And then it was agony to try to rip with her fingers at these thick, sap-coated, stinging roots.

I'm frightened, she thought, putting into words at last what all her feelings had been since she stepped into the darkness of the Old Wood. She was damp with dew and sweat, her hair was as wet as if she'd been standing in the rain. It was so dark! And now her imagination began to work, and unlike most people's imaginations it had genuine, solid information to workwith . A vampire's hand seemed to tangle in her hair. After an endless time of agony in her ankle and her shoulder, she had twisted the "hand" out of her hair - to find another curling stalk.

All right. She would ignore the pain and get her bearings here, here where there was a remarkable tree, a massive white pine that had a huge hole in its center, big enough for Bonnie to get into. She would put that flat at her back and then walk straight west - she couldn't see stars because of the cloud cover, but shefelt that west was to her left. If she were correct, it would bring her to the road. If she were wrong and it was north, it would take her to the Dunstans'. If it were south, it would eventually take her to another curve of the road. If it were east...well, it would be a long walk, but it would eventually take her to the creek.

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L.J. Smith's Novels
» Destiny Rising (The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters #3)
» Moonsong (The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters #2)
» Phantom (The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters #1)
» Midnight (The Vampire Diaries: The Return #3)
» Shadow Souls (The Vampire Diaries: The Return #2)
» Nightfall (The Vampire Diaries: The Return #1)
» The Compelled (The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #6)
» The Asylum (The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #5)
» The Ripper (The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #4)
» Bloodlust (The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #2)
» The Craving (The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #3)
» Origins (The Vampire Diaries: Stefan's Diaries #1)
» Dark Reunion (The Vampire Diaries #4)
» The Fury (The Vampire Diaries #3)
» The Struggle (The Vampire Diaries #2)
» The Awakening (The Vampire Diaries #1)
» Witchlight (Night World #9)
» Black Dawn (Night World #8)
» Huntress (Night World #7)
» Soulmate (Night World #6)