07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

“Since I first saw you, I loved you—but it was the wrong kind of love. See how long it
took me to figure that out?” Elena whispered into the hollow of his throat.
“Since I first saw you, I loved you—but I didn’t know who you really were. You were
like a ghost in a dream. But you put me straight pretty quickly,” Stefan said, obviously glad that he
could brag about her. “And we’ve survived—everything. They say long-distance relationships can be
pretty difficult,” he added, laughing, and then he stopped, and she could feel all his faculties fixed on
her suddenly, breath stopping so he could hear her better.
“But then, there’s Bonnie and Damon,” he said before she could say or think a word. “We
have to find them soon—and they’d damn well better be together—or it had better have been
Bonnie’s decision to part.”
“There’s Bonnie and Damon,” agreed Elena, glad that she could share even her darkest
thoughts with someone. “I can’t think about them. I can’t not think about them. We do have to find
them, and very fast—but I pray that they’re with Lady Ulma now. Maybe Bonnie is going to a ball or
gala. Maybe Damon is hunting with that Black Ops program.”
“As long as nobody’s really hurt.”
“Yes.” Elena tried hard to tuck herself closer to Stefan. She wanted to—be closer to him,
somehow. The way they had when she had been out of her body and she had just sunk into him.
But of course, with regular bodies, they couldn’t…
But of course they could. Now. Her blood…
Elena really didn’t know which of them thought of it first. She looked away, embarrassed
at even having considered it—and caught the tail end of Stefan looking away too.
“I don’t think we have the right,” she whispered. “Not to—be that happy—when
everyone else is miserable. Or doing things for the town or for Bonnie.”
“Of course we don’t,” Stefan said firmly, but he had to gulp a little first.
“No,” Elena said.
“No,” Stefan said firmly, and then right in the middle of her echoing “no,” he went and
pulled her up and kissed her breathless.
And of course, Elena couldn’t let him do that and not get even. So she demanded, still
breathless, but almost angry, that he say “no” again, and when he did it she caught him and kissed him.
“You were happy,” she accused a moment later. “I felt it.”
Stefan was too much of a gentleman to accuse her of being happy because of anything she
might do. He said, “I couldn’t help it. It just happened by itself. I felt our minds together, and that
made me happy. But then I remembered about poor Bonnie. And—”
“Poor Damon?”
“Well, somehow I don’t think we need to go so far as to call him ‘poor Damon.’ But I did
remember him,” he said.
“Well done,” Elena said.
“We’d better go inside now,” Stefan said. And then hastily, “Downstairs, I mean. Maybe
we can think of something more to do for them.”
“Like what? There’s not a thing I can think of. I did meditation and Attempt to Contact by
Out-of-Body Experience—”
“From nine thirty to ten thirty A.M.,” Stefan said. “And meanwhile I was trying all
frequency telepathic calls. No response.”
“Then we tried with the Ouija board.”
“For half an hour—and all we got was nonsense.”