"Stefan...will come back," Matt got out, looking up at Damon from where he was unintentionally groveling on the ground. "Stefan will kill you."

"Guess what?" Damon said conversationally. "Your face is all messed up on one side-scratches, you know. You've got sort of a Phantom of the Opera thing going on."

"If he doesn't, I will. I don't know how, but I will. I swear it."

"Careful what you promise."

Just as Matt got his arm working enough to prop him up-exactly then, to the millisecond-Damon reached out and grabbed him painfully by a handful of hair, yanking his head up.

"Stefan," Damon said, looking straight down into Matt's face and forcing Matt to look up at him, no matter how Matt tried to turn his face away, "was only powerful for a few days because he was drinking the blood of a very powerful spirit who hadn't yet adapted to Earth yet. But look at her now." He twisted his grip on Matt's hair again, more painfully. "Some spirit. Lying there in the dirt. Now the Power is back where it should be. Do you understand?Do you-boy?"

Matt just stared at Elena. "How could you do that?" he whispered finally.

"An object lesson in what it means to defy me. And surely you wouldn't want me to be s.e.xist and leave her out?" Damontched .

"You have to keep up with the times."

Matt said nothing. He had to get Elena out of this.

"Worrying about the girl? She's just playing possum now. Hoping I'll ignore her and concentrate on you."

"You're a liar."

"So I'll concentrate on you. Speaking of keeping up with the times, you know-except for the scratches and things, you're a fine- looking young man."

At first the words meant nothing to Matt. When he understood them, Matt could feel his blood freeze in his body.

"As a vampire, I can give you an informed and honest opinion. And as a vampire, I'm getting very thirsty. There's you. And then there's the girl who's still pretending to be asleep. I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at."

I believe in you, Elena, Matt thought. He's a liar, and he'll always be a liar. "Take my blood," he said wearily.

"Are you sure?" Now Damon sounded solicitous. "If you resist, the pain is horrible."

"Just get it over with."

"Whatever you like." Damon knelt fluidly on one knee, at the same time twisting his grip on Matt's hair, making Matt wince. The new grip dragged Matt's upper body across Damon's knee, so that his head was thrown back, his neck arched and exposed. In fact Matt had never felt so exposed, so helpless, so vulnerable in his life.

"You can always change your mind," Damon taunted him.

Matt shut his eyes, stubbornly saying nothing.

At the last moment, though, as Damon bent with fangs exposed, Matt's fingers almost involuntarily, almost as if it were something his body was doingapart from his mind, clenched themselves into a fist and he suddenly, unpredictably, brought the fist swinging up to deal a violent blow to Damon's temple. But-serpent-quick-Damon reached up and caught the blow almost nonchalantly in an open hand, and held Matt's fingers in a crushing grip-just as razor-sharp fangs opened a vein in Matt's throat and an open mouth fastened on his exposed throat, sucking and drinking the blood that sprayed upward.

Elena-awake but unable to move from where she had fallen, unable to make a sound or turn her head-was forced to listen to the entire exchange, forced to hear Matt's groan as his blood was taken against his will, as he resisted to the last.

And then she thought of something that, as dizzy and frightened as she was, almost made her pa.s.s out in fear.

26.

Ley lines. Stefan had spoken of them, and with the influence of the spirit world still on her, she had seen them without trying. Now, still lying on her side, channeling what remained of that Power to her eyes, she looked at the earth.

And that was what made her mind go gray in terror.

As far as she could see there were lines converging here from all directions. Thick lines that glowed with a cold phosph.o.r.escence, medium-sized lines that had the dull shine of bad mushrooms in a cellar, and tiny lines that looked like perfectly straight cracks of the outer surface layer of the world. They were like veins and arteries and nerves just under the skin of the clearing-beast.

No wonder it seemed alive. She was lying on a ma.s.sive convergence of ley lines. And if the cemetery was worse than this-she couldn't imagine what it might look like.

If Damon had somehow found a way to tap into that Power...no wonder he seemed different, arrogant, undefeatable. Ever since he had released her to drink Matt's blood, she had kept shaking her head, trying to shake off the humiliation with it. But now finally she stopped as she tried to calculate a way to make use of this Power. There had to be a way to do it.

The grayness wouldn't clear from her vision. Finally Elena realized that it was not because she was faint, but because it was getting dark-twilight outside the clearing, true darkness coming into it.

She tried again to lift herself up, and this time she succeeded. Almost immediately a hand was extended to her and, automatically, she took it, letting it draw her to her feet.

She faced-whoever it was, Damon or whatever was using his features or his body. Despite the almost-darkness, he still wore those wraparound sungla.s.ses. She could make nothing out of the rest of his face.

"Now," the thing in the sungla.s.ses said. "You're going to come with me."

It was nearing full dark, and they were in the clearing that was a beast.

This place-it was unwholesome. She was afraid of the clearing as she had never been afraid of a person or creature. It resounded with malevolence, and she couldn't shut her ears to it.

She had to keep thinking, and keep thinking straight, she thought.She was terribly frightened for Matt; frightened that Damon had taken too much blood or had played too hard with his toy; breaking it.

And she was afraid of this Damon thing. She was also worried about the influence this place might have had on the real Damon. The woods around them shouldn't have any effect on vampires, except to hurt them. Was the possible-Damon inside the possessor hurt? If he could understand anything of what was happening, could he distinguish that hurt from his hurt and anger at Stefan?

She didn't know. She did know that there had been a terrible look in his eyes when Stefan had told him to get out of the boardinghouse. And she did know that there were creatures in the forest, malach, that could influence a person's mind. She was afraid, deeply afraid, that the malach were using Damon now, blackening his darkest desires and twisting him into something horrible, something he had never been even at his worst.

But how could she be sure? How could she know whether or not there was something else behind the malach, something that controlledthem ? Her soul was telling her that this might be the case, that Damon might be completely unconscious of what his body was doing, but that might just be wishful thinking.

Certainly all she could sense around her were small, evil creatures. She could feel them encircling the clearing, strange insect-like beings like the one that had attacked Matt. They were in a furor of excitement, whipping their tentacles around to make a noise almost like a buzzing helicopter.

Were they influencing Damon now? Certainly, he had never before hurt any of the other humans she knew the way he had today.

She had to get all three of them out of this place. It was diseased, contaminated. Once again she felt a wave of longing for Stefan, who might know what to do in this situation.

She turned, slowly, to look at Damon.

"May I call someone to come and help Matt? I'm afraid to leave him here; I'm afraidthey'll get him." Just as well to let him know that she knewthey were hiding in the liverwort and the rhododendron and mountain holly bushes all around.

Damon hesitated; he seemed to consider it. Then he shook his head.

"We wouldn't want to give them too many clues to where you are," he said cheerily. "It'll be an interesting experiment to see if the malach do get him-and how they do it."

"It wouldn't be an interesting experiment forme ." Elena's voice was flat. "Matt is my friend."

"Nevertheless, we'll leave him here for now. I don't trust you-even to giveme a message to Meredith or Bonnie-to send on my phone."

Elena didn't say anything. As a matter of fact, he was right not to trust her, as she and Meredith and Bonnie had worked out an elaborate code of harmless-sounding phrases as soon as they knew that Damon was after Elena. A lifetime ago for her-literally- but she could still remember them.

Silently, she simply followed Damon to the Ferrari.

She was responsible for Matt.

"You're not putting up much of an argument this time, and I wonder what you're plotting."

"I'm plotting that we might as well get on with it. If you'll tell me what 'it' is," she said, more bravely than she felt.

"Well, now what 'it' is, is up to you." Damon gave Matt a kick in the ribs in pa.s.sing. He was now pacing in a circle around the clearing, which seemed smaller than ever, a circle which didn't include her. She took a few paces toward him-and slipped. She didn't know how it happened. Maybe the giant animal breathed. Maybe it was just the slick pine needles under her boots. But one moment she was heading for Matt and the next her feet had gone out from under her and she was heading for the ground with nothing to grab onto.

And then, smoothly and unhurriedly, she was in Damon's arms. With centuries of Virginian etiquette behind her she automatically said, "Thank you."

"My pleasure."

Yes, she thought. That's all it means. It ishis pleasure, and that's all that matters.

That was when she noticed that they were headed for her Jaguar.

"Oh, no, we don't," she said.

"Oh, yes, we will-if I please," he said. "Unless you want to see your friend Matt suffer like that again. At some point his heartwill give out."

"Damon." She pushed her way out of his arms, standing on her own feet. "I don't understand. This isn't like you. Take what you want and go."

He just kept looking at her. "I was doing just that."

"You don't have to"-for the life of her, she couldn't keep a tremor out of her voice-"take me anywhere special to take my blood. And Matt won't know. He's out."

For a long moment there was silence in the clearing. Utter silence. The night birds and the crickets stopped making their music.

Suddenly Elena felt as if she were on some kind of thrill ride that plummeted down, leaving her stomach and organs still at the top.

Then Damon put it in words.

"I wantyou . Exclusively."

Elena braced herself, trying to keep a clear head despite the fog that seemed to be invading it.

"You know that that's not possible."

"I know that it was possible for Stefan. When you were with him, you didn't think about anything but him. You couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel anything but him."

Elena's gooseflesh now covered her whole body. Speaking carefully around the obstruction in her throat, she said, "Damon, did you do something to Stefan?"

"Now, why would I want to do something like that?"

Very low, Elena said, "You and I both know why."

"Do you mean," Damon started out speaking casually, but his voice grew more intense as he gripped her shoulders, "so that you would see nothing butme , hear nothing butme , think of nothing butme ?"

Still quietly, still controlling her terror, Elena said, "Take off the sungla.s.ses, Damon."

Damon glanced upwards and around as if to rea.s.sure himself that no last ray of sunset could pierce the green-gray world that surrounded them. Then with one hand, he stripped off the sungla.s.ses.

Elena found herself looking into eyes that were so black there seemed to be no difference between iris and pupil. She...turned a switch in her brain, did something so that all her senses were tuned onto Damon's face, his expression, the Power circulating through him.

His eyes were still as black as the depths of an unexplored cave. No red. But then, he'd had time, this time to get ready for her.

I believe what I saw before, Elena thought. With myown eyes.

"Damon, I'll do anything, anything you want. But you have to tell me.Did you do something to Stefan?"

"Stefan was still high onyour blood when he left you," he reminded her, and before she could speak to deny this-"and, to answer your question precisely, I don't know where he is. On that, you have my word. But in any case, it's true, what you were thinking earlier," he added, as Elena tried to step away, to get out of the grip he had on her upper arms. "I'mthe only one, Elena. The only one you haven't conquered. The only one you can't manipulate. Intriguing, isn't it?"

Suddenly, in spite of her fear, she was furious. "Then why hurt Matt? He's just a friend. What's he got to do with it?"

"Just a friend." And Damon began to laugh the way he had before, eerily.

"Well, I knowhe didn't have anything to do with Stefan leaving," Elena snapped.

Damon turned on her, but by then the clearing was so dim that she couldn't read his expression at all. "And who saidI did? But that doesn't mean I'm not going to make use of the opportunity." He picked Matt up easily and held up something that shone silver from his other hand.

Her keys. From her jeans pocket. Taken, no doubt, when she was lying unconscious on the ground.

She could tell nothing from his voice, either, except that it was bitter and grim-all usual if he were talking about Stefan. "With your blood in him, I couldn't have killed my brother if I had tried, the last time I saw him," he added.

"Didyou try?"

"As a matter of fact, no. You have my word on that as well."

"And you don't know where he is?"

"No." He hefted Matt.

"What do you think you're doing?

"Taking him with us. He's hostage for your good behavior."

"Oh, no," Elena said flatly, pacing. "This is between you and me. You've hurt Matt enough." She blinked and once again almost screamed to find Damon much too close, much too fast. "I'll do whatever you want.Whatever you want. But not here out in the open and not with Matt around."

Come on, Elena, she was thinking. Where's that vampy behavior when you want it? You used to be able to vamp any guy; now, just because he's a vampire, you can't do it?