The Return: Nightfall Chapter 24

No peck on the lips was spill to satisfy Damon, Elena thought. On the other hand, flavourless was going to need outright seduction before he would give in. Fortunately Elena had broken the Matt H peerlessycutt code long ago. And she mean to be remorseless in using what she had learned on his weakened, susceptible body.But Matt could be far too stubborn for his own good. He allowed Elena to put her soft lips over against his, he allowed her to put her arms around him. But when Elena act to do some of the things he liked most like political campaign her nails down his spine, or touching her tongue tip lightly to his closed lips he clamped his teeth shut. He wouldnt put an arm around her.Elena let go of him and sighed. Then she felt a crawling sensation between her shoulder blades, as if she were being watched only a hundred times stronger. She glanced bottom to regain Damon standing at a distance with his Virginia pine rod, but she couldnt find anything unusual. She glanced back once more and had to cram a fist into her mouth.Damon wasthere right laughingstock her so close that you couldnt have gotten two fingers between the attend of her body and the front of his. She didnt know why her arm hadnt hit him. Her whirl actually detain her in between two male bodies.But how had he done it? at that place had been no time to travel the distance of the clearing from where Damon had been standing to one inch behind her in the second that she had glanced away. Nor had there been any sound as hed walked across the pine needles toward them like the Ferrari, he was just there.Elena swallowed the scream that was urgently trying to get out of her lungs, and tried to breathe. Her own body was rigid with fear. Matt was trembling slightly behind her. Damon was leaning in, and all she could smell was the sweet of pine resin. any(prenominal)things wrong with him. Somethings wrong.You know what, Damon give tongue to, leaning forward even farther so that she had t o lean backward against Matt, so that, even spooned against Matts shaking body, she was tone great into the Ray-Bans from a distance of three inches. That gets you a grade of a D minus.Now Elena was shaking as well as Matt. But she had to get a grip on herself, had to meet this aggression head-on. The more passive she and Matt were, the more time Damon had to think.Elenas mind was in feverish scheming mode. He whitethorn not be reading our minds, she thought, but he great deal certainly tell if were telling the truth or lying. Thats normal for a vampire who drinks compassionate blood. What can we make of that? What can we do with it?That was a greeting kiss, she said boldly. Its to identify the person that youre meeting, so youll always know them afterwardswards. Even even prairie hamsters do it. Now please could we move just a little, Damon? Im getting crushed.And this is just much too provocative a position, she thought. For everybody involved.One more chance, Damon said, and this time he didnt smile. I want to teach a kiss a real kiss between you. Or else.Elena twisted in the tight space. Her eyes searched Matts. They had, after all, been boyfriend and girlfriend for quite a while last year. Elena saw the look in Matts blue eyes hewanted to kiss her, as much as he could want anything after that pain. And he cognise that shed had to go through all that fancy footwork to restrain him from Damon.Somehow, well get out, Elena thought to him. Now, will you cooperate? Some boys didnt have buttons in the selfish sensations bea of their brain. Some, like Matt, had buttons labeledHONOR or GUILT .Now Matt held belt up as she took his face between her hands, tilting it down and going up on her toes to kiss him, because hed grown so much. She thought of their first gear real kiss, in his car on the way home from a secondary school dance. Hed been terrified, his hands damp, his whole interior quaking. Shed been cool, experienced, gentle.And so she was now, drawing a warm tongue tip to melt his frozen lips apart. And just in facial expression Damon was eavesdropping on her thoughts, she kept them strictly on Matt, on his sun hopeful looks and his warm friendship and on the gallantry and courtesy that he had always shown to her, even when she broke up with him. She wasnt aware when his arms went around her shoulders or when he took control of the kiss, like a person dying of thirst whos finally found water. She could see it clearly in his mind hed never thought hed kiss Elena Gilbert like this again.Elena didnt know how long it lasted. Finally she unwound her arms from around Matts neck and stepped back.And so she realized something. It was no accident that Damon had sounded like a film director. He was holding up a palm-sized video camera, staring into the viewfinder. Hed captured the whole thing.With Elena clearly visible. She had no belief what had happened to the disguising baseball cap and dark glasses. Her hair was disord ered and her breathing came quickly, involuntarily. The blood had risen to the surface of her skin. Matt didnt look much more together than she felt.Damon looked up from the viewfinder.What do you want that for? Matt growled in tones completely unlike his normal voice. The kiss had affected him, too, Elena thought. More so than her.Damon picked up his branch again and again waved the end of it like a Japanese fan. Pine aroma wafted by Elena. He looked considering, as though he might ask for a retake, then changed his mind, smiled brilliantly at them, and tuck the video camera into a pocket.All you need to know is that it was a perfect take.Then were leaving. The kiss seemed to have give Matt new strength, even if it was for saying the wrong type of things. Right now.Oh, no, but keep that dominant, aggressive attitude. As you remove her shirt.What?Damon repeated the words in the tones of a director giving an actor complicated instructions.Undo the buttons of her shirt, please, and t ake it off.Yourecrazy . Matt turned and looked at Elena, stopped aghast to see the expression on her face, the single tear running down the eye not hidden.Elena He moved around, but she moved too. He couldnt get her to look him in the face. At last, she stopped, stood with her eyes down and leaking tears. He couldfeel the heat radiating from her cheeks.Elena, lets fight him. Dont you remember how you fought the bad things in Stefans room?But this is worse, Matt. Ive never felt anything this bad before. This strong. Its printing press on me.You dont mean we should give in to him?That was what Mattsaid and he sounded as if he were on the verge of being ill. What his clear blue eyes said was simpler. They saidNo. Not if he kills me for refusing.I mean Elena turned suddenly back to Damon. Let him go, she said. This is between you and me. Lets settle it ourselves. She was damned well going to save Matt, even if he didnt want to be saved.Ill do what you want,she thought as hard as she c ould to Damon, hoping he would pick some of it up. After all, hed bled her against her will at least initially before. She could live through him doing it again.Yes, youll doeverything I want, Damon said, proving that he could read her thoughts even more clearly than shed imagined. But the question is, after how much? He didnt say how much what. He didnt have to. Now, I know I just gave you an order, he added, half turning toward Matt but with his eyes still on Elena, because I can still see you picturing it in your mind. But Elena saw the look in Matts eyes then, and the flaming of his cheeks, and she knew and immediately tried to hide the knowledge from Damon what he was going to do.He was going to commit suicide.If we cant talk you out of it, we cant talk you out of it, Meredith said to Mrs. Flowers. But there are things out there Yes, dear, I know. And the sun is going down. Its a bad time to be outside. But as my mother always said, two witches are better than one. She g ave Bonnie an absent smile. And as you very kindly did not say before, I am very old. Why, I can remember the days before the first motorcars and airplanes. I might have knowledge that would help you in your quest for your friends and on the other hand, I am dispensable.You certainly are not, Bonnie said fervently. They were using up Elenas wardrobe now, piling on the clothes. Meredith had picked up the duffel bag with Stefans clothes in it and dumped it on his bed, but the first time she picked up a shirt, she dropped it again.Bonnie, you might take something of Stefans with you as we go, she said. See if you get any impressions from it. Um, maybe you too, Mrs. Flowers? she added. Bonnie understood. It was one thing to let mortal call themselves a witch it was another thing to call someone very much your senior one.The last layer of Bonnies wardrobe was one of Stefans shirts, and Mrs. Flowers tucked one of his socks in her pocket.But I wont go out the front door, Bonnie said ada mantly. She couldnt even bear to imagine the mess.All right, so we go out the back, Meredith said, flipping Stefans lamp off. Come on.They were actually walking out the back door when the front doorbell rang.They all three exchanged glances. Then Meredith wheeled, It could be them And she hastened back to the dim front of the house. Bonnie and Mrs. Flowers followed more slowly.Bonnie shut her eyes as she heard the door open. When there were no immediate exclamations about the mess, she undecided them a slit.There was no sign that anything unusual had happened outside the door. No smashed insect bodies no dead or dying bugs on the front porch.Hairs on the back of Bonnies neck rose. Not that she wanted to see the malach. But she did want to know what had happened to them. Automatically, one hand went to her hair, to feel if a tendril had been left behind. Nothing.Im looking for Matthew Honeycutt. The voice cut into Bonnies reverie like a hot knife through butter, and Bonnies eyes sn apped all the way open.Yes, it was Sheriff Rich Mooseburger and he was all there, from shiny boots to crisp collar. Bonnie opened her mouth, but Meredith spoke first.This is not Matts house, she said, her tone quiet, her voice even.In fact I have already been to the Honeycutt house. And to the Sulez house and the McCulloughs. all(prenominal) one of them, in fact, suggested that if Matt werent at one of those places, he might be out here with you.Bonnie wanted to kick him in the shins. Matt hasnt been stealing stop signs He would never, ever,ever do something like that. And I wish to God I knew where he was, but I dont. None of us do She stopped, with the feeling that she might have said too much.And your names are?Mrs. Flowers took over. This is Bonnie McCullough, and Meredith Sulez. I am Mrs. Flowers, the owner of this boardinghouse, and I believe I can second Bonnies remarks about the stop signs In fact this is more serious than missing road signs, maam. Matthew Honeycutt is und er suspicion of assaulting a young woman. There is significant physical evidence to support her story. And she claims that they have known each other since childhood, so there can be no mistake as to identity.There was a moment of stunned silence, and then Bonnie almost shouted, She? Shewho ?Miss Caroline Forbes is the complainant. And I would in fact suggest, if any of the three of you should happen to see Mr. Honeycutt, that you advise him to turn himself in. Before he is taken by force into custody. He took a step toward them as if threatening to come through the door, but Mrs. Flowers silently barred the way.In fact, Meredith said, regaining her composure, Im sure you realize that you need a warrant to enter these premises. Do you have one?Sheriff Mossberg didnt answer. He do a sharp little right turn, walked down the pathway to his sheriffs car, and disappeared.