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?
"Take me somewhere," she said softly, intertwining her arm with his free one, "but in the Ferrari. I don't want to go in my car. Take me in the Ferrari."
Damon paced back to the trunk of the Ferrari, unlocked it, and looked inside. Then he looked at Matt. It was clear that the tall, well-built boy wasn't going to fit in to the trunk...at least, not with all his limbs attached.
"Don't you eventhink about it," Elena said. "Just put him in the Jaguar with the keys and he'll be safe enough - lock him in." Elena fervently prayed that what she was saying was true.
For a moment Damon said nothing, then he looked up with a smile so brilliant she could see it in the dusk. "All right," he said. He dumped Matt on the ground again. "But if you try to run while I move the cars, I runhim over."
Damon, Damon, will you never understand? Humans don'tdo that to their friends, Elena thought as he brought the Ferrari out so he could bring the Jaguar in, so he could dump Matt in it.
"All right," she said in a small voice. She was afraid to look at Damon. "Now - what do you want?"
Damon inclined from the waist in a very graceful bow, indicating the Ferrari. She wondered what would happen once she got in. If he were any normal attacker - if there wasn't Matt to think about - if she
didn't fear the forest even more than she feared him...
She hesitated and then got into Damon's car.
Inside, she pulled her camisole out of her jeans to conceal the fact that she wasn't wearing a seat belt. She doubted Damon ever wore a seat belt or locked his doors or anything like that. Precautions weren't his thing. And now she prayed that he had other matters on his mind.
"Seriously, Damon, where are we going?" she said as he got into the Ferrari.
"First, how about one for the road?" Damon suggested, his voice fake-jocular.
Elena had expected something like this. She sat passively as Damon took her chin in fingers that trembled slightly, and tilted it up. She shut her eyes