I didn't know.
He gave a short, unamused laugh.
"I'm trying.
I really am.
But you have to bend a little, too, Mercy.
Why didn't you tell me what was going on until you were on your way back here? When it was too late to do anything about it." "I should have." He looked at me with dark, wounded eyes.
So I tried to do better.
"I'm not used to leaning on people, Adam." I started slowly, but the words came faster as I continued.
"And ...
I've cost you so much lately.
I thought--a vampire bite.
Ick.
Scary ...
But it didn't seem too harmful.
Like a giant mosquito or ...
the ghost.
Frightening but not harmful.
I've been bitten before, you remember, and nothing bad happened.
If I'd told you--you'd have made me come home.
And there was Chad--you'd like him-this ten-year-old kid with more courage than most grown-ups, who was being terrorized by a ghost.
I thought I could help.
And I could stay out of Marsilia's hair so she would listen to you.
It wasn't until Stefan was so worried--and that was right before we came home, after the second bite--that I realized that there was something more dangerous about them." I shrugged helplessly, blinking back tears that I would not let fall.
"I'm sorry.
It was stupid.
I'm stupid.
I can't move without making everything worse." I turned my face away.
"No," he said.
The bed sagged as he sat down next to me.
"It's all right." He bumped my shoulder deliberately with his.