into Stefan�s eyes, those jewel-green eyes that are warm with trust and gratitude�I feel terror, too. Terror that somehow he�ll be snatched away again�right out of my arms. And�terror that he�ll find out how I�ve come to feel about Damon. I hadn�t even realized myself how much Damon has come to mean to me. And I can�t�stop�my feeling�for him, even if he hates me now.
And, yes, damn it, I�m crying! In a minute, I have to go take him his dinner. He must be starving, but when Matt tried to take him something earlier today, Damon threw the whole tray at him.
Oh, please, God, please don�t let him hate me!
I�m being selfish, I know, in just talking about what�s going on with Damon and me. I mean, things in Fell�s Church are worse than ever. Every day more children become possessed and terrify their parents. Every day, parents get angrier with their possessed children. I don�t even want to think about what�s going on. If something doesn�t change, the whole place will be destroyed like the last town Shinichi and Misao visited.
Shinichi�he made a lot of predictions about our group, about things we�ve kept secret from the others. But the truth is, I don�t know if I want to hear any of his riddles solved.
We�re lucky in one way. We have the Saitou family to help us. You remember Isobel Saitou, who pierced herself so horribly while she was possessed? Since she�s gotten better, she�s become a good friend, and her mother, Mrs. Saitou, and her grandmother, Obaasan, too. They give us amulets�spells to keep evil away, written on Post-it Notes or little cards. We�re so grateful for that kind of help. Someday maybe we can repay them all.
Elena Gilbert put down the pen reluctantly. Shutting her diary meant having to face
the things she had been writing about.
Somehow, though, she managed to make herself walk downstairs to the kitchen
and take the dinner tray from Mrs. Flowers, who smiled encouragingly at her.
As she set out for the boardinghouse�s storage room, she noticed that her hands were trembling so that the entire tray of food she was carrying jingled. Since there was no access to the storage room from inside, anyone who wanted to see Damon had to go out the front door and around to the addition tacked on near the kitchen garden. Damon�s lair, people were calling it now.
As she passed the garden Elena glanced sideways at the hole in the middle of the angelica patch that was the powered-down Gateway where they�d come back from the Dark Dimension.
She hesitated at the storage room door. She was still trembling, and she knew that was not the right way to face Damon.
Just relax, she told herself. Think of Stefan.
Stefan had had a grim setback when he�d found that there was nothing left of the rose, but he had soon recovered his usual humility and grace, touching Elena�s cheek and saying that he was thankful just to be there with her. That this closeness was all he asked of life. Clean clothes, decent food�freedom�all these were worth fighting for, but Elena was the most important. And Elena had cried.
On the other hand, she knew that Damon had no intention of remaining as he now was. He might do anything, risk anything�to change himself back.
It had actually been Matt who had suggested the star ball as a solution for Damon�s condition. Matt hadn�t understood either the rose or the star ball until it was explained that this star ball, which was probably Misao�s, contained within it most or all of her Power, and that it had become more brilliant as it absorbed the lives that she took. The black rose had probably been created with a liquid from a similar star ball�but no one knew how much or whether it was combined with unknown ingredients. Matt had frowned and asked, if the rose could change a vampire to a human, could a star ball change a human to a vampire?
Elena hadn�t been the only one to see the slow rising of Damon�s bent head, and the glimmer in his eyes as they traveled the length of the room to the star ball filled with Power. Elena could practically hear his logic. Matt might be totally off track� but there was one place a human could be sure to find powerful vampires. In the
Dark Dimension�to which there was a Gateway in the boardinghouse�s garden. The Gateway was closed right now�for lack of Power.
Unlike Stefan, Damon would have absolutely no qualms about what would happen if he had to use all the star ball�s liquid, which would result in
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