"You weren't there in the basement with that thing." Andre's demon-possessed vampire, he meant, the first vampire I'd killed.
He had captured several of the wolves and Stefan and ...
played with them.
Demons like causing pain.
"If it hadn't been for Stefan ..." Ben shrugged, as if letting a memory die away unspoken.
"We owe him." Adam glanced at Darryl, who opened the door.
I thought of something.
"Wait." Adam stopped.
"If I talk to Mom ...
does that count?" He'd told me I had to talk to someone, and my mother wouldn't go away until I told her everything.
It seemed like I should be able to kill two birds with one stone.
He handed Stefan to Ben and walked to me.
He touched my jaw, just below my ear, and, as if our fascinated audience wasn't watching, he kissed me, touching me with nothing more than his fingertips and his mouth.
At first the heat flushed through me ...
followed by a horrible choking fear.
I couldn't breathe, couldn't move ...
When I came back to myself, I was sitting on the couch with my head between my knees, Adam crooning to me.
But he wasn't touching me, and neither was anyone else.
I sat up and came face-to-face with Adam.
His face was still, but I could see the wolf in his eyes and smell the wild on his skin.
"Panic attack," I said needlessly.
"I haven't been having them as often." I lied and saw from the expression on his face that he knew it.
This one made four today.
Yesterday, I'd done better.
"Talking to your mother counts," he said.
"We'll take things slowly ...
see how it goes.
You talk to your mother or anyone else you'd like.
But it'll all keep until kissing me doesn't cause a panic attack, all right?" He didn't wait for an answer, just strode out of the house followed by his entourage.
Darryl waited until both Ben and Peter were out the door before closing it gently behind them all.