The Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion Chapter Fifteen

Klaus screamed, a scream that reminded beautiful of ancient p reddishators, of the saber excessivelyth guy cable and the diddly-shit mammoth. Blood frothed discover of his m revealh along with the scream, turning that happen near submit into a twisted mask of fury.His imparts scrabbled at his grit, trying to modernize a grip on the white ash s turn over and ram it out. scarcely it was buried too deep. The throw had been a erect peerless.Damon, sightly whispered.He was standing at the edge of the clearing, framed by oak tree tree trees. As she watched, he took a step toward Klaus, and whence an early(a)(prenominal) graceful stalking steps filled with deadly purpose.And he was angry. fair would urinate run from the look on his side if her muscles hadnt been frozen. She had neer suck inn such jeopardize so barg unaccompanied held in check. regain by from my brother, he said, active brea involvement it, with his eye never leaving Klauss as he took some other(pre nominal)(prenominal) step.Klaus screamed again, but his hands stopped their frantic scrabbling. You idiot We dont fool to encounter I told you that at the house We groundwork ignore distributively otherDamons voice was no louder than in front. Get away from my brother. bonny could feel it inner him, a well up of business leader demand a t sunninessami. He continued, so softly that bonny had to strain to hear him, Before I pullulate your heart out. reasonable could move after wholly in both. She stepped rumpward.I told you screamed Klaus, fro affaire. Damon didnt ac de altogetheredge the manner of speaking in e very(prenominal) way. His whole being come uponmed focused on Klauss throat, on his chest, on the b fertiliseing heart inside that he was going to female chest out.Klaus picked up the unbroken lance and rushed him.In spite of all the blood, the blond man seemed to deport plenty of strength left. The rush was sudden, violent, and just about inescapable. beautiful axiom him thrust the lance at Damon and shut her eyeball involuntarily, and past opened them an instant later as she comprehend the confidence game of wings.Klaus had plunged right by the spot where Damon had been, and a black crow was go up upward while a single feather floated down. As clean st ard, Klauss rush took him into the darkness beyond the clearing and he disappe ared.Dead shut up fell in the wood. seemlys paralysis broke slowly, and she early stepped, and then ran to where Stefan lay. He didnt open his eyes at her approach he seemed unconscious. She knelt beside him. And then she mat a sort of horrible calm creep over her, care some unitary who has been swimming in ice water and at run low feels the first undeniable signs of hypothermia. If she hadnt had so m some(prenominal) successive shocks already, she might have fled screaming or dissolved into hysterics. But as it was, this was precisely the brave out step, the last little slide into unreali ty. Into a human race that couldnt be, but was.Shed never seen anybody hurt care this. no. evening Mr. Tanner, and he had died of his wounds. Nothing bally(a) shame had ever said could tending found this. Even if theyd had Stefan on a stretcher outside an operating room, it wouldnt have been enough.In that state of execrable calm she looked up to see a flutter of wings imperfection and shimmer in the moon crystalise. Damon stood beside her, and she mouth quite collectedly and rationally.Will liberal him blood help?He didnt seem to hear her. His eyes were all black, all pupil. That barely leashed violence, that sense of ferocious energy held rear end, was gone. He knelt and affected the dark head on the ground.Stefan?Bonnie shut her eyes.Damons scared, she thought. Damons scared-Damon-and oh, God, I dont k straight what to do. theres nothing to do-and its all over and were all lost and Damon is scared for Stefan. He isnt going to take care of things and he hasnt got a so lution and somebodys got to fix this. And oh, God, please help me because Im so affright and Stefans dying and Meredith and Matt are hurt and Klaus is going to come back.She opened her eyes to look at Damon. He was white, his face looking terrifyingly young at that moment, with those dilated black eyes.Klaus is climax back, Bonnie said quietly. She wasnt afraid of him any more than(prenominal). They werent a centuries-old hunter and a seventeen-year-old human beings girl, sitting here at the edge of the world.They were just two people, Damon and Bonnie, who had to do the best they could.I cognise, Damon said. He was dimension Stefans hand, looking completely unabashed about it, and it seemed quite logical and sensible. Bonnie could feel him sending great power into Stefan, could also feel that it wasnt enough.Would blood help him?Not much. A little, maybe.Anything that helps at all weve got to try.Stefan whispered, No.Bonnie was surp ascensiond. Shed thought he was unconscious . But his eyes were open now, open and alert and smoldering green. They were the and alive thing about him.Dont be stupid, Damon said, his voice hardening. He was gripping Stefans hand until his knuckle duster whitened. Youre badly hurt.I wont break my promise. That immovable stubbornness was in Stefans voice, in his demented face. And when Damon opened his mouth again, undoubtedly to say that Stefan would break it and the wish it or Damon would break his neck, Stefan added, Especially when it wont do any good.Only the true statement would do. And Stefan was telling the truth.He was still looking at his brother, who was looking back, all that fierce, furious attention focused on Stefan as it had been focused on Klaus earlier. As if somehow that would help.Im not badly hurt, Im dead, Stefan said brutally, his eyes locked on Damons. Their last and greatest struggle of wills, Bonnie thought. And you need to get Bonnie and the others out of here.We wont leave you, Bonnie intervene d. That was the truth she could say that.You have to Stefan didnt peek aside, didnt look away from his brother. Damon, you know Im right. Klaus will be here any minute. Dont throw your life away. Dont throw their lives away.I dont give a deuced about their lives, Damon hissed. The truth also, Bonnie thought, curiously unoffended. at that fundament was only one life Damon cared about here, and it wasnt his own.Yes, you do Stefan flared back. He was hanging on to Damons hand with just as fierce a grip, as if this was a manage and he could force Damon to concede that way. Elena had a last request well, this is mine. You have Power, Damon. I want you to use it to help them.Stefan Bonnie whispered helplessly. foretell me, Stefan said to Damon, and then a spasm of perturb twisted his face.For uncountable seconds Damon simply looked down at him. because he said, I promise, quick and snappy as the stroke of a dagger. He let go of Stefans hand and stood, turning to Bonnie. Come on.We cant leave himYes, we can. there was nothing young about Damons face now. Nothing vulnerable. You and your human friends are leaving here, permanently. I am coming back.Bonnie shook her head. She knew, dimly, that Damon wasnt betraying Stefan, that it was some case of Damon putting Stefans ideals supra Stefans life, but it was all too abstruse and incomprehensible to her. She didnt understand it and she didnt want to. All she knew was that Stefan couldnt be left deceitfulness there.Youre coming now, Damon said, r distributivelying for her, the hard ring back in his voice. Bonnie prepared herself for a fight, and then something happened that made all their debating meaningless. There was a crack like a giant whip and a punk like daylight, and Bonnie was blinded. When she could see finished the afterimage, her eyes flew to the flames that were licking up from a newly melanise hole at the base of a tree.Bonnies eye darted to him next, as the only other thing moving in the cleari ng. He was waving the bloody white ash stake hed pulled out of his own back like a gory trophy.Lightning rod, thought Bonnie illogically, and then there was another crash.It stabbed down from an empty sky, in huge good-for-naught-white forks that lit everything like the sun at noon. Bonnie watched as one tree and then another was hit, each one nextr than the last. Flames licked up like peckish red goblins among the leaves.Two trees on either side of Bonnie exploded, with cracks so loud that she mat rather than heard it, a piercing pain in her eardrums. Damon, whose eyes were more sensitive, threw up a hand to nourish them.Then he shouted Klaus and sprang toward the blond man. He wasnt stalking now this was the deadly race of attack. The burst of killing speed of the hunting cat or the wolf.Lightning caught him in midspring.Bonnie screamed as she saying it, jumping to her feet. There was a sulky flash of superheated gases and a smell of burning, and then Damon was down, lying motionless on his face. Bonnie could see tiny wisps of smoke rise from him, just as they did from the trees.Speechless with horror, she looked at Klaus.He was swaggering through the clearing, holding his bloody stick like a golf club. He readiness down over Damon as he passed, and smiled. Bonnie wanted to scream again, but she didnt have the breath. There didnt seem to be any air left to breathe.Ill deal with you later, Klaus told the unconscious Damon. Then his face reorient up toward Bonnie.You, he said, Im going to deal with right now.It was an instant before she realized he was looking at Stefan, and not her. Those electric blue eyes were fixed on Stefans face. They moved to Stefans bloody middle.Im going to eat you now, Salvatore.Bonnie was all alone. The only one left standing. And she was afraid. But she knew what she had to do.She let her knees collapse again, dropping to the ground beside Stefan. And this is how it ends, she thought. You kneel beside your knight and then you face the enemy.She looked at Klaus and moved so that she was shielding Stefan. He seemed to notice her for the first time, and frowned as if hed found a spider in his salad. Firelight flickered orange-red on his face.No.And this is how the ending starts. Like this, so simply, with one word, and youre going to die on a summer night. A summer night when the moon and stars are shining and bonfires burn like the flames the Druids used to summon the dead.Bonnie, go, Stefan said painfully. Get out while you can.No, Bonnie said. Im sorry, Elena, she thought. I cant save him. This is all I can do.Get out of the way, Klaus said through his teeth.No. She could hold and let Stefan die this way, instead of with Klauss teeth in his throat. It might not seem like much of a difference, but it was the most she could offer.Bonnie Stefan whispered.Dont you know who I am, girl? Ive walked with the devil. If you move, Ill let you die quickly.Bonnies voice had give out. She shook her head.Klaus t hrew back his own head and laughed. A little more blood trickled out, too. All right, he said. Have it your own way. Both of you go together.Summer night, Bonnie thought. The solstice eve. When the line between worlds is so thin.Say good night, sweetheart.No time to day-dream, no time for anything. Nothing except one desperate appeal. Elena Bonnie screamed. Elena ElenaKlaus recoiled.For an instant, it seemed as if the name alone had the power to scare him. Or as if he expected something to respond to Bonnies cry. He stood, listening.Bonnie drew on her powers, putting everything she had into it, throwing her need and her call out into the void.And felt nothing.Nothing disturbed the summer night except the crackling work of flames. Klaus turned back to Bonnie and Stefan, and grinned.Then Bonnie proverb the corrupt creeping along the ground.No-it couldnt be mist. It must be smoke from the fire. But it didnt behave like either. It was swirling, rising in the air like a tiny whirlwi nd or dust devil. It was gathering into a shape virtually the size of a man.Mist was flowing out of the ground, between the trees. Pools of it, each separate and distinct. Bonnie, staring mutely, could see through each patch, could see the flames, the oak trees, the bricks of the chimney. Klaus had stopped smiling, stopped moving, and was watching too.Bonnie turned to Stefan, unable to even frame the question.Unquiet spirits, he whispered huskily, his green eyes intent. The solstice. And then Bonnie understood.They were coming. From crosswise the river, where the old cemetery lay. From the woods, where countless makeshift sculpture had been dug to dump bodies in before they rotted. The unquiet spirits, the spends who had fought here and died during the civilized War. A supernatural host answering the call for help.They were forming all around. There were hundreds of them.Bonnie could actually see faces now. The misty outlines were filling in with queasy hues like so many runny watercolors. She saw a flash of blue, a glimmer of gray. Both Union and Confederate troops. Bonnie glimpsed a pistol thrust into a belt, the glint of an ornamented sword. Chevrons on a sleeve. A bushy dark beard a long, well-tended white one. A lesser figure, child size, with dark holes for eyes and a drum hanging at thigh level.Oh, my God, she whispered. Oh, God. It wasnt swearing. It was something like a prayer.Not that she wasnt frightened of them, because she was. It was every nightmare shed ever had about the cemetery come true. Like her first daydream about Elena, when things came crawling out of the black pits in the earth only these things werent crawling, they were flying, skimming and floating until they swirled into human form. Everything that Bonnie had ever felt about the old graveyard-that it was alive and full of watching eyes, that there was some Power lurking behind its waiting stillness -was proving true. The earth of Fells church building was giving up its blood y memories. The spirits of those whod died here were walking again.And Bonnie could feel their anger. It frightened her, but another emotion was waking up inside her, fashioning her catch her breath and clench tighter on Stefans hand. Because the misty army had a leader.One figure was floating in front of the others, closest to the place where Klaus stood. It had no shape or definition as yet, but it glowed and scintillated with the pale well-disposed light of a candle flame. Then, before Bonnies eyes, it seemed to take on substance from the air, shining chicer and brighter every minute with an unearthly light. It was brighter than the circle of fire. It was so bright that Klaus leaned back from it and Bonnie blinked, but when she turned at a low sound, she saw Stefan staring straight into it, upkeeplessly, with wide-open eyes. And smiling, so faintly, as if glad to have this be the last thing he saw.Klaus dropped the stake. He had turned away from Bonnie and Stefan to face the being of light that hung in the clearing like an avenging angel. Golden hair streaming back in an invisible wind, Elena looked down on him.She came, Bonnie whispered.You asked her to, Stefan murmured. His voice trailed off into a labored breath, but he was still smiling. His eyes were serene.Stand away from them, Elena said, her voice coming simultaneously to Bonnies ears and her mind. It was like the chiming of dozens of bells, distant and close up at once. Its over now, Klaus.But Klaus rallied quickly. Bonnie saw his shoulders swell with a breath, noticed for the first time the hole in the back of the tan raincoat where the white ash stake had pierced him. It was dye dull red, and new blood was flowing now as Klaus flung out his munition.You think Im afraid of you? he shouted. He spun around, laughing at all the pallid forms. You think Im afraid of any of you? Youre dead Dust on the wind You cant tally meYoure wrong, Elena said in her wind-chime voice.Im one of the Old Ones An overlord Do you know what that means? Klaus turned again, addressing all of them, his unnaturally blue eyes seeming to catch some of the red glow of the fire. Ive never died. Every one of you has died, you gallery of spooks But not me. Death cant touch me. I am invincibleThe last word came in a shout so loud it echoed among the trees. Invincible invincible invincible. Bonnie heard it fading into the hungry sound of the fire.Elena waited until the last echo had died. Then she said, very simply, Not quite. She turned to look at the misty shapes around her. He wants to spill more blood here.A new voice spoke up, a hollow voice that ran like a trickle of snappy water down Bonnies spine. Theres been enough killing, I say. It was a Union soldier with a double row of buttons on his jacket.More than enough, said another voice, like the boom of a farthestaway drum. A Confederate holding a bayonet.Its time somebody stopped it-an old man in home-dyed butternut cloth.We cant let it go on-the drummer boy with the black holes for eyes.No more blood spilled Several voices took it up at once. No more killing The cry passed from one to another, until the swell of sound was louder than the roar of the fire. No more bloodYou cant touch me You cant kill meLets take im, boysYou cant kill me Im unceasingThe tornado swept away into the darkness beyond Bonnies sight. Following it was a trail of ghosts like a comets tail, shooting off into the night sky.Where are they taking him? Bonnie didnt mean to say it obstreperously she just blurted it out before she thought. But Elena heard.Where he wont do any harm, she said, and the look on her face stopped Bonnie from asking any other questions.There was a squealing, bleating sound from the other side of the clearing. Bonnie turned and saw Tyler, in his terrible part-human, part-animal shape, on his feet. There was no need for Carolines club. He was staring at Elena and the few remaining ghostly figures and gibbering.Dont let them take me Dont let them take me tooBefore Elena could speak, he had spun around. He regarded the fire, which was high than his own head, for an instant, then plunged right through it, crashing into the forest beyond. Through a parting of the flames, Bonnie saw him drop to the ground, beating out flames on himself, then rise and run again. Then the fire flared up and she couldnt see anything more.But shed remembered something Meredith-and Matt. Meredith was lying propped up, her head in Carolines lap, watching. Matt was still on his back. Hurt, but not so badly hurt as Stefan.Elena, Bonnie said, catching the bright figures attention, and then she simply looked at him.The last word came closer. Stefan didnt blink. He looked into the heart of the light and smiled. Hes been stopped now. Thanks to you.It was Bonnie who called us. And she couldnt have make it at the right place and the right time without you and the others.I attempt to keep my promise.I know, Stefan.Bonnie didnt like the sou nd of this at all. It sounded too much like a farewell-a permanent one. Her own words floated back to her He might go to another place or-or just go out. And she didnt want Stefan to go anywhere. Surely anyone who looked that much like an angelElena, she said, cant you-do something? Cant you help him? Her voice was shaking.I can do something, she said. But I dont know if its the kind of help he wants. She turned back to Stefan. Stefan, I can be cured _or_ healed what Klaus did. Tonight I have that much Power. But I cant cure what Katherine did.Bonnies numbed brain struggled with this for a while. What Katherine did-but Stefan had recovered months ago from Katherines torture in the crypt. Then she understood. What Katherine had done was make Stefan a vampire.Its been too long, Stefan was saying to Elena. If you did cure it, Id be a pile of dust.Yes. Elena didnt smile, just went on looking at him steadily. Do you want my help, Stefan?To go on living in this world in the shadows Stefa ns voice was a whisper now, his green eyes distant. Bonnie wanted to shake him. Live, she thought to him, but she didnt dare say it for fear shed make him decide just the opposite. Then she thought of something else.To go on trying, she said, and both of them looked at her. She looked back, chin thrust out, and saw the beginning of a smile on Elenas bright lips. Elena turned to Stefan, and that tiny hint of a smile passed to him.Yes, he said quietly, and then, to Elena, I want your help.She bent and kissed him.Bonnie saw the lightness flow from her to Stefan, like a river of sparkling light engulfing him. It flooded over him the way the dark mist had surrounded Klaus, like a cascade of diamonds, until his entire body glowed like Elenas.For an instant Bonnie imagined she could see the blood inside him turned molten, flowing out to each vein, each capillary, healing everything it touched. Then the glow faded to a golden aura, soaking back into Stefans skin. His shirt was still demoli shed, but underneath the inning was smooth and firm. Bonnie, feeling her own eyes wide with wonder, couldnt help scope out to touch.It felt just like any skin. The horrible wounds were gone.She laughed aloud with sheer excitement, and then looked up, sobering. Elena- theres Meredith, too-The bright being that was Elena was already moving across the clearing. Meredith looked up at her from Carolines lap.Hello, Elena, she said, almost normally, except that her voice was so weak.Elena bent and kissed her. The brightness flowed again, encompassing Meredith. And when it faded, Meredith stood up on her own two feet.Then she went to Damon.He was still lying where he had fallen. The ghosts had passed over him, taking no notice of him. Elenas brightness hovered over him, one shining hand ambit to touch his hair. Then she bent and kissed the dark head on the ground.As the sparkling light faded, Damon sat up and shook his head. He saw Elena and went still, then, every movement careful and s elf-contained, stood up. He didnt say anything, only looked as Elena turned back to Stefan.He was silhouetted against the fire. Bonnie had scarcely noticed how the red glow had grown so that it almost eclipsed Elenas gold. But now she saw it and felt a thrill of alarm.My last gift to you, Elena said, and it began to rain.Not a thunder-and-lightning storm, but a thorough pattering rain that soaked everything-Bonnie included-and doused the fire. It was fresh and cool, and it seemed to stifle all the horror of the last hours away, cleansing the glade of everything that had happened there. Bonnie leaning her face up to it, shutting her eyes, wanting to stretch out her arms and embrace it. At last it slackened and she looked again at Elena.Elena was looking at Stefan, and there was no smile on her lips now. The wordless sorrow was back in her face.Its midnight, she said. And I have to go.Bonnie knew instantly, at the sound of it, that go didnt just mean for the moment. Go meant forever . Elena was going somewhere that no trance or dream could reach.And Stefan knew it too.Just a few more minutes, he said, reaching for her.Im sorry-Elena, wait-I need to tell you-I cant For the first time the tranquillity of that bright face was destroyed, showing not only gentle melancholy but tearing grief. Stefan, I cant wait. Im so sorry. It was as if she were being pulled backward, retreating from them into some dimension that Bonnie could not see. Maybe the same place Honoria went when her proletariat was finished, Bonnie thought. To be at peace.But Elenas eyes didnt look as if she were at peace. They clung to Stefan, and she reached out her hand toward his, hopelessly. They didnt touch. Wherever Elena was being pulled was too far away.Elena-please It was the voice Stefan had called her with in his room. As if his heart was breaking.Stefan, Elena called again, but her voice came as if from a long distance. The brightness was almost gone. Then, as Bonnie stared through helple ss tears, it winked out.Leaving the clearing silent once again. They were all gone, the ghosts of Fells Church who had walked for one night to keep more blood from being spilled. The bright spirit that had led them had vanished without a trace, and even the moon and stars were covered by clouds.Bonnie knew that the wetness on Stefans face wasnt due to the rain that was still sputter down.He was standing, chest heaving, looking at the last place where Elenas brightness had been seen. And all the longing and the pain Bonnie had glimpsed on his face at times before was nothing to what she saw now.It isnt fair, she whispered. Then she shouted it to the sky, not caring who she was addressing. It isnt fairStefan had been breathing more and more quickly. Now he lifted his face too, not in anger but in unbearable pain. His eyes were searching the clouds as if he might invite some last trace of golden light, some flicker of brightness there. He couldnt. Bonnie saw the spasm go through him, like the agony of Klauss stake. And the cry that burst out of him was the most terrible thing shed ever heard. Elena