Midnight

"He forced me,"Elena said, turning to meet Damon’s dark eyes straight on, even as her brain screamed for her to let it go. "He didn’t wait for me to hear his cal . He just…took what he wanted. Like the slavers do. I didn’t know how to fight – then."

"Oh, no. You fought and fought. I’ve never seen a human fight so hard. But even when you fought, you felt the cal of my heart to yours. Try to deny that."

"Damon – why now – al of a sudden…?"

Damon made a move as if to turn away, then turned back.

"Because by tomorrow we may be dead,"he said flatly. "I wanted you to know how I felt about you before I died – or you did."

"But you haven’t told me a word about how you feel about me. Only about what you think I feel about you. And I’m sorry that I slapped you the first day I was here, but – "

"You were magnificent,"Damon said outrageously. "Forget it now. As for how I feel – maybe I’l get a chance to real y show it to you someday."

Something sparked inside Elena – they were back to fencing with words, as they had been when they’d first met.

"Someday? Sounds convenient. And why not now?"

"Do you mean that?"

"Do I habitual y say things I don’t mean?"

She was waiting for some kind of apology, some words spoken as simply and sincerely as she had been speaking to him. Instead, with the utmost gentleness, and without glancing around to see if anyone was watching them, Damon cupped Elena’s scarf-bound cheeks with his bare hands, pul ed the scarf just below her lips with his thumbs, and kissed her softly. Softly – but not briefly, and something in Elena kept whispering to her that of course she had heard his cal from the moment she first saw him, first felt his aura cal to her. She hadn’t known that it was an aura then; she hadn’t believed in auras. She hadn’t believed in vampires.

She’d been an ignorant little idiot…

Stefan! A voice like crystal sounded off two notes in her brain, and suddenly she was able to step back from Damon’s embrace and look at the palanquin again. No sign of motion there.

"I have to go back,"she told Damon brusquely. "I have to know what’s going on with Bonnie."

"You mean to see what’s going on with Stefan,"he said. "You needn’t worry. He’s fast asleep, and so is our little girl."

Elena tensed. "You Influenced them? Without seeing them?"It was a wild guess, but one side of Damon’s mouth crooked up, as if congratulating her. "How dare you?"she said.

"To be honest, I don’t know how I dare."Damon leaned in close again, but Elena turned her cheek, thinking, Stefan!

He can’t hear you. He’s dreaming about you.

Elena was surprised at her own reaction to that. Damon had caught and held her eyes again. Something inside her melted in the intensity of his steady black gaze.

"I’m not Influencing you; I give you my word" – in a whisper.

"But you can’t deny what happened between us the last time we were in this dimension."His breath was on her lips now –

and Elena didn’t turn aside. She trembled.

"Please, Damon. Show some respect. I’m –  oh, God! God! "

"Elena? Elena! Elena! What’s wrong? "

Hurts – that was al Elena could think. A terrible agony had lanced through her chest on the left side. As if she’d been stabbed through the heart. She stifled a scream.

Elena, talk to me! If you can’t send your thoughts, speak!

Through numb lips, Elena said, "Pain – heart attack – "

"You’re too young and healthy for that. Let me check."Damon was unfastening her top. Elena let him. She could do nothing for herself, except gasp, "Oh God! It hurts!"

Damon’s warm hand was inside her leather and furs. His hand came to rest slightly to the left of center, with only her camisole between his probing fingers and her flesh. Elena, I’m going to take the pain away now. Trust me.

Even as he spoke, the stabbing anguish drained. Damon’s eyes narrowed, and Elena knew he’d taken the pain into himself, to analyze it.

"It’s not a heart attack,"he said a moment later. "I’m as sure as I can be. It’s more as if – Well, as if you’d been staked. But that’s sil y. Hmm…it’s gone now."

For Elena it had been gone since he’d taken it, protecting her. "Thank you,"she breathed, suddenly realizing that she had been clinging to him, in utter terror that she was dying.

Or that he was.

He gave her a rare, ful , genuine smile. "We’re both fine. It must have been a cramp."His gaze had dropped to her lips.

"Do I deserve a kiss?"

"I…"He had comforted her; he had taken the terrible pain away. How could she sanely say no? "Just one,"she whispered.

A hand under her chin. Her eyelids wanted to melt closed, but she widened her eyes and wouldn’t let them.

As his lips touched hers, his arm around her…changed somehow. It was no longer trying to restrain her. It seemed to be wanting to comfort her. And when his other hand stroked her hair softly at the very ends, crushing the waves gently, and just as gently smoothing them out, Elena felt a rush of shivering warmth.

Damon wasn’t deliberately trying to batter her with the strength of his aura, which at the moment was fil ed with nothing but his feelings for her. The simple fact, though, was that although he was a new-made vampire, he was exceptional y strong and he knew al the tricks of an experienced one. Elena felt as if she had stepped into clear calm water, only to find herself caught in a fierce undertow that there was no resisting; no bargaining with; and certainly no possibility of reaching by reason. She had no choice but to surrender to it and hope that it was taking her, eventual y, to a place she could breathe and live. Otherwise, she would drown…but even that possibility didn’t seem so dire, now that she could see the tide was made of a chain of little moments strung like pearls. In each one of them was a tiny sparkle of admiration that Damon had for her: pearls for her courage, for her intel igence, for her beauty. It seemed that there was no slightest motion she had made, no briefest word that she had said, that he had not noticed and locked in his heart as a treasure.