vampire diaries Shadow Souls | Page 5

my worst enemy.
“Caroline was also the lucky winner of Shinichi’s first visit to any gir l in Fell’s Church.
But more to the point: she was Tyler Smallwood’s girlfriend

quite a while before she was his victim. I wonder how long they were together and where
Tyler is now. All I know is that, in the end, Caroline hung on to
Shinichi because she ‘needed a husband.’ That was how she put it herself. So I as sume—
well, what Damon assumes. That she’s going to…have
puppies. A werewolf litter, you know? Since Tyler is a werewolf. “Damon says that having a werewolf baby turns you into a werewolf even faste r than if
you’re bitten, and that at some point in the pregnancy you
gain the power to be all wolf or all human, but before that point you’re j ust a mixed-up
mess.
“The sad thing is that Shinichi scarcely gave Caroline a second glance whe n she blurted it
all out.
“But before that Caroline had been desperate enough to accuse Matt of—of assaulting
her—on a date that went wrong. She had to have known
something about what Shinichi was doing because she claimed her ‘date’ with Mat t was
at a time when one of the arm-swallowing mallach was attacking
him, making marks on his arm that looked like a girl’s fingernail scratches.
“That sent the police after Matt, all right. So basically I just made him come with us.
Caroline’s father is one of the most important people in Fell’s
Church— and he’s friends with the district attorney in Ridgemont and the leader of one of
those men’s clubs where they have secret handshakes and other
stuff that makes you, you know, ‘prominent in the community.’
“If I hadn’t convinced Matt to run instead of facing Caroline’s charges, the Forb eses
would have lynched him. And I feel the anger like a fire inside
me—not just anger and hurt for Matt, but anger and the feeling that Caroline has let all
girls everywhere down. Because most girls aren’t pathological liar s,
and wouldn’t say something like that about a boy falsely. She’s shamed all gi rls by doing
what she did.”
Elena paused, looking at her hands, and then added, “Sometimes when I get angry at
Caroline, cups shake or pencils roll right off the table.
Damon says all this is caused by my aura, my life force, and that ever sinc e I came back
from the afterlife it’s been different. First of all, it makes anyone
who drinks my blood incredibly strong.
“Stefan was strong enough that the fox demons could never have forced him into their
trap if Damon hadn’t tricked him in the beginning. They
could only deal with him when he was weakened and surrounded by iron. Iron is bad
news for any eldritch creature, plus vampires need to feed at least
once a day or they get weak, and I’ll bet—no, I’m sure that they used that against him.
“That’s why I can’t stand to think about what shape Stefan might be in right t his minute.
But I can’t let myself get too afraid or angry or I’ll lose
control of my aura. Damon showed me how to keep my aura mostly inside, like a normal
human girl. It’s still pale gold and pretty, but not a beacon for
creatures like vampires.
“Because there’s one other thing my blood—maybe even just my aura—can do. It
can… oh, well, I can say anything I want to here, right?
Nowadays, my aura can make vampires want me…the way human guys do. Not just t o
bite, get it? But to kiss and all the rest. And so, naturally, they come

after me if they sense it. It’s as if the world is full of honeybees and I’m the only flower.
“So I have to practice keeping my aura hidden. If it’s just barely s howing, then I can get
away with seeming like a normal human, not somebody
who’s died and come back. But it’s hard to always remember to hide it—and it hurts a lot
pulling it in suddenly if I’ve forgotten! “And then I feel—this is absolutely private, all right? I’m putting a c urse on you, Damon,
if you replay this. But it’s then that I feel like I want Stefan to
bite me. It eases up the pressure, and that’s good. Being bitten by a vampire only hurts if
you fight it, or if the vampire wants it to hurt. Otherwise, it can just
feel good—and then you touch the mind of the vampire who’s done it, and… oh, I just
miss Stefan so much! ”
Elena was shaking