07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

No, it was better than flying, better than dancing, it was what her heart always yearned for. A high
still place where nothing could ever harm them or disturb them.
And then, when she was most vulnerable, the pain came again, drilling through her chest,
a little to the left. This time Damon was so mindlocked with her that he felt it from the beginning. And
she could hear clearly a phrase in Damon’s mind: staking is just as effective on humans as it is on
vampires, and his sudden fear that this was a precognition.
In the swaying little room, Stefan was asleep holding Bonnie by his side, with the sparkling of Power
engulfing them both. Elena, who had a good grip on the palanquin’s ladder, vaulted the rest of the way
inside. She put a hand on Stefan’s shoulder and he woke.
“What is this? Is something wrong with her?” she asked, with a third question: “Do you
know?” buzzing around in her head.
But when Stefan lifted his green eyes to her, they were simply worried. Clearly he was
not invading her thoughts. He was focused entirely on Bonnie. Thank God, he’s such a gentleman,
Elena thought for the thousandth time.
“I’m trying to get her warm,” Stefan said. “After she came out of trance, she was
shivering. Then she stopped shivering, but when I took her hand, it was colder than ever. Now I’ve
put an envelope of heat around her. I guess I dozed off for a little while after that.” He added, “Did
you find anything?”
I found Damon’s lips, Elena thought wildly, but she forced herself to blank out the
memory. “We’re looking for Lake Silver Death Mirror,” she said. “But all I could see was white. The
snow and the fog seem to go on forever.”
Stefan nodded. Then he carefully went through the motions of plucking apart two layers
of air and slid in a hand to touch Bonnie’s cheek. “She’s warming up,” he said, and smiled.
It took a long while before Stefan was satisfied that Bonnie was warm. When he did, he
gently unwrapped her from the heated air that had formed the “envelope” and lay her on one bench,
coming to sit with Elena on the other. Eventually Bonnie sighed, blinked, and opened her eyes.
“I had a nap,” she said, obviously aware that she had lost time.
“Not exactly,” Elena said, keeping her voice gentle and reassuring. Let’s see, how did
Meredith do this? “You went into trance, Bonnie. Do you remember anything about it?”
Bonnie said, “About the treasure?”
“About what the treasure is for,” Stefan said quietly.
“No…No…”
“You said that this was the Last Midnight,” Elena said. As far as she could remember,
Meredith was pretty direct. “But we think you were talking about back at home,” she added hastily,
seeing terror leap in Bonnie’s eyes.
“The Last Midnight—and no morning afterward,” Bonnie said. “I think—I heard
someone saying those words. But no more.”
She was as skittish as a wild colt. Elena reminded her about time running differently
between the two worlds but it didn’t seem to comfort her. Finally, Elena just sat by her and held her.
Her head was spinning with thoughts of Damon. He’d forgiven her. That was good, even
though he’d taken his own time about it. But the real message was that he was willing to share her. Or
at least willing to say he would to get in her good graces. If she knew him at all, if she ever agreed—