"Watch it on the compliments. I may dry up and blow away."
"Don't worry," Elena said flatly, "whatever happens to the rest of us, I have a feeling your ego will survive. What happened next?"
"I made my deal with Shinichi. He would lure Stefan somewhere out of the way where I could see him alone, then smuggle him out of this place to somewhere Stefan couldn't find you - "
Something bubbled up explosively again inside Elena. It was a tight hard ball of compressed elation. "Not kill him?" she managed to get out.
"What?"
"Stefan's alive? He's alive? He...he's really alive?"
"Steady," Damon replied coldly. "Steady on, Elena. We can't have you fainting." He held her by the shoulders. "You thought I meant to kill him?"
Elena was trembling almost too hard to answer. "Why didn't you tell me before?"
"I apologize for the omission."
"He's alive - for sure, Damon? You're absolutely sure?"
"Positive."
Without a thought of herself, without a thought of any kind, Elena did what she did best - gave in to impulse. She threw her arms around Damon's neck and kissed him.
For a moment Damon just stood rigid with shock. He had contracted with killers to hijack her lover and decimate her town. But Elena's mind would never see it that way.
"If he were dead - " He stopped and had to try again. "Shinichi's whole bargain depends on keeping him alive - alive and away from you. I couldn't risk you killing yourself orreally hating me" - again the note of distant coldness. "With Stefan dead, what hold would I have over you, princess?"
Elena ignored all this. "If he's alive, I can find him."
"If he remembers you. But what if every memory he had of you were taken away?"
"What?" Elena wanted to explode. "If every memory of Stefan were taken away fromme ," she said icily, "I would still fall in love with him the very moment I saw him. And if every memory of me were taken away from Stefan, he would wander all over the world looking for something without knowing what he was looking for."
"Very poetic."
"But, oh, Damon, thank youfor not letting Shinichi kill him!"
He shook his head at her, looking bewildered at himself. "I couldn't - seem to - do that. Something about giving my word. I figured that if he were free and happy and didn't remember, that would satisfy enough..."
"Of your promise to me? You figured wrong. But it doesn't matter now."
"It does matter. You've suffered for it."
"No, Damon. All thatreally matters is that he's not dead - and he didn't leave me. There's still hope."
"But Elena," Damon's voice had life now; it was both excited and inflexible: "Can't you see? Past history aside, you have to admit thatwe're the ones that belong together. You and I are simply better suited to each other by nature. Deep down you know that, because we understand each other. We're on the same intellectual level - "
"So is Stefan!"
"Well, all I can say is that he does a remarkable job of hiding it, then. But can't you feel it? Don't you feel" - his grip was becoming uncomfortable now - "that you could be my princess of darkness - that something deep inside you wants to? I can see it, if you can't."
"I can't beanything to you, Damon. Except a decent sister-in-law."
He shook his head, laughing harshly. "No, you're only suited for the main role. Well, all I can say is that if we live through the fight with the twins, you'll see things in yourself that you've never seen before. And you'llknow that we're more suited together."
"And allI can say is that if we live through this fight with the Bobbsey twins from Hell, it sounds as if we're going to need all the spiritual power that we can get afterward. Andthat means getting Stefan back."
"We may not be able to get him back. Oh, I agree - even if we drive Shinichi and Misao away from Fell's Church, the likelihood that we're going to be able to do away with them completely is about zero. You're no fighter. We're probably not even going to be able to hurt them very much. But even I don't know exactly where Stefan is."
"Then the twins are the only ones who can help us."
"If they stillcan help us - oh, all right, I'll admit it. TheShi no Shi are probably complete frauds. They probably take a few memories from vampire chumps - memories are the coin of choice in the realm of the Other Side - and then send them away while the cash register is still jingling. They're frauds. The whole place is a giant slum and freakshow - sort of like a rundown Vegas."
"But they're not afraid that the vampires they cheat will want revenge?"
Damon laughed, this time musically. "A vampire who doesn't want to be a vampire is about the lowest object on the totem pole on the Other Side. Oh, except for humans. Along with lovers who've fulfilled suicide pacts, kids who jump off the roof because they think their Superman cape can make them fly - "
Elena tried to pull away from him, to reprove him, but he was surprisingly strong. "It doesn't sound like a very nice place."
"It isn't."
"And that's where Stefan is?"
"If we're lucky."
"So basically," she said, seeing things, as she always did, in terms of Plans A, B, C, and D, "first we have to find out where Stefan is from these twins. Second, we have to get the twins to heal the little girls they've possessed. Third, we have to get them to leave Fell's Church alone - for good. But before any of that, we have to find Stefan. He'll be able to help us; I know he will. And then we just hope we're strong enough for the rest."