vampire diaries the return midnight | Page 5

as she said the last words, feeling soft and helpless and easily hurt.

Damon reached over and slowly slipped a hand beneath her hair. He could slam her head against a wall, or throw her across the room. He could simply squeeze her neck between knife and hand until her head fell off. Elena knew that he was in the mood to take out his emotions on a human, but she did nothing. Said nothing. Just stood and looked into her eyes.

Slowly, Damon bent toward her and brushed his lips�so softly�against hers. Elena�s eyes drifted shut. But the next moment Damon winced and slid the hand back out of her hair.

That was when Elena gave another thought as to what must have become of the food she had been bringing to him. Near-scalding coffee seemed to have splashed her hand and arm and soaked her jeans on one thigh. The cup and saucer were laying in pieces on the floor. The tray and the cookies had bounced off behind a chair. The plate of steak tartar, however, had miraculously landed on the couch, right side up. There was miscellaneous cutlery everywhere.

Elena felt her head and shoulders droop in fear and pain. That was her immediate universe right now�fear and pain. Overwhelming her. She wasn�t usually a crier, but she couldn�t help the tears that filled her eyes.

Damn! Damon thought.
It was her. Elena. He�d been so certain an adversary was spying on him, that one of his many enemies had tracked him down and was setting a trap�someone
who had discovered that he was as weak as a child now.

It hadn�t even occurred to him that it might be her, until he was holding her soft body with one arm, and smelling the perfume of her hair as he held an ice-slick blade to her throat with the other.

And then he�d snapped on a light and saw what he had already guessed.

Unbelievable! He hadn�t recognized her. He had been outside in the garden when he�d seen the door to the storage room standing open and had known that there was an intruder. But with his senses degraded as they were he hadn�t been able to tell who was inside.

No excuses could cover up the facts. He had hurt and terrified Elena. He had hurt her. And instead of apologizing he had tried to force the truth out of her for his own selfish desires.

And now, her throat�

His eyes were drawn to the thin line of red droplets on Elena�s throat where the knife had cut her when she�d jerked in fear before collapsing right onto it. Had she fainted? She could have died right then, in his arms, if he hadn�t been fast enough in whipping the knife away.

He kept telling himself that he wasn�t afraid of her. That he was just holding the knife absentmindedly. He wasn�t convinced.

�I was outside. You know how we humans can�t see?� he said, knowing he sounded indifferent, unrepentant. �It�s like being wrapped in cotton all the time, Elena: We can�t see, can�t smell, can�t hear. My reflexes are like a tortoise�s, and I�m starving.�
�Then why don�t you try my blood?� Elena asked, sounding unexpectedly calm. �I can�t,� Damon said, trying not to eye the dainty ruby necklace flowing down
Elena�s slim white throat.

�I already cut myself,� Elena said, and Damon thought, Cut herself? Ye gods, the girl was priceless. As if she�d had a little kitchen accident.

�So we might as well see what human blood tastes like to you now,� Elena said. �No.�
�You know that you�re going to. I know you know. But we don�t have much time. My blood won�t flow forever. Oh, Damon�after everything�just last week��

He was looking at her too long, he knew. Not just at the blood. At the glorious golden beauty of her, as if the child of a sunbeam and a moonbeam had entered

his room and was harmlessly bathing him in light.

With a hiss, narrowing his eyes, Damon took hold of Elena�s arms. He expected an automatic recoil like the one when he�d grabbed her from behind. But there was no movement backward. Instead there was something like the leap of an eager flame in those wide malachite eyes. Elena�s lips parted involuntarily.

He knew it was involuntarily. He�d had many years to study young women�s responses. He knew what it meant when her gaze went first to his lips before lifting to his eyes.

I can�t kiss her again. I can�t. It�s a human weakness, the way she affects me. She doesn�t realize what it is to be so young and so impossibly beautiful. She�s going to learn