07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

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Stefan didn’t move or speak for long moments. Elena’s heart swelled. Suddenly she was as afraid as
he clearly was. She went to him and took both his hands, which were shaking.
Darling, don’t cry, she sent. There must still be time to save Fell’s Church. There must.
It can’t end this way. And besides, Shinichi is gone! We can get to the children; we can break the
conditioning…” She stopped. It was as if the word “conditioning” echoed in her ears. Stefan’s green
eyes were filling her vision. Her mind was getting…it was getting fuzzy. Everything was becoming
unreal again. In a minute she wouldn’t be able to…
She wrenched her eyes away, breathing hard.
“You were Influencing me,” she said. She could hear the anger in her own voice.
“Yes,” Stefan whispered. “I’ve been Influencing you for half an hour.”
How dare you? Elena thought, just for him.
“I’m stopping it…now,” Stefan said quietly.
“As am I,” Sage added, sounding exhausted.
And the universe did a slow spin and Elena remembered what it was that they were all
keeping from her.
With a wild sob, she rose, scattering droplets, coming to her feet like an avenging
goddess. She looked at Sage. She looked at Stefan.
And Stefan proved how brave he was, how much he loved her. He told her what she
already knew. “Damon is gone, Elena. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry if…if I kept you from being with him as
much as you wanted to. I’m sorry if I came between you. I didn’t understand—how much you loved
each other. I do now.” And then he dropped his face into his hands.
Elena wanted to go to him. To scold him, to hold him. To tell Stefan that she loved him
just as much, drop for drop, grain for grain. But her body had gone numb, and the darkness was
threatening again…all she could do was hold out her arms as she crumpled onto the grass. And then
somehow Bonnie and Stefan were both there, the three of them all sobbing: Elena with the intensity of
new discovery; Stefan with a lost sound that Elena had never heard before; and Bonnie with a dry,
wrenching exhaustion that seemed to want to shatter her small body.
Time lost all meaning. Elena wanted to grieve for every moment of Damon’s painful
death, and for every moment of his life, too. So much had been lost. She couldn’t get her head around
it, and she didn’t want to do anything but cry until the kind darkness took her mind again.
That was when Sage broke.
He grabbed Elena and pulled her up, and shook her by the shoulders. It snapped her head