brave man - he must have been - to survive an attack by an Old One."
Suddenly, Meredith's cold hand was around his wrist and words were tumbling from her lips in a rush that Stefan could barely understand. But her thoughts stood bright and clear under those words, and through them he got the meaning.
"Al I can know about what happened when I was very young is what I've been told. My parents told me things. My parents changed my birthday - they actual y changed the day we celebrate my birthday on - because a vampire attacked my grandpa, and then my grandpa tried to kil me. They've always said that. But how do they know? They weren't there - that's part of what they say. And what's more likely, that my grandpa attacked me or that the vampire did?"She stopped, panting, trembling al over like a white-tailed doe caught in the forest. Caught, and thinking she was doomed, and unable to run.
Stefan put out a hand that he deliberately made warm around Meredith's cold one. "I won't attack you,"he said simply. "And I won't disturb any old memories. Good enough?"
Meredith nodded. After her cathartic story Stefan knew she wanted as few words as possible.
"Don't be afraid,"he murmured, just as he had thought the soothing phrase into the mind of many an animal he'd chased through the Old Wood. It's all right. There's no reason to fear me.
She couldn't help being afraid, but Stefan soothed her as he soothed the forest animals, drawing her into the darkest shadow of the room, calming her with soft words even as his canines screamed at him to bite. He had to fold down the side of her blouse to expose her long, olive-skinned column of neck, and as he did the calming words turned into soft endearments and the kind of reassuring noises he would use to comfort a baby.
And at last, when Meredith's breathing had slowed and evened and her eyes had drifted shut, he used the greatest of care to slide his aching fangs into her artery. Meredith barely quivered. Everything was softness as he easily skimmed over the surface of her mind, too, seeing only what he already knew about her: her life with Elena and Bonnie and Caroline. Parties and school, plans and ambitions.
Picnics. A swimming hole. Laughter. Tranquility that spread out like a great pool. The need for calm, for control. Al this stretching back as far as she could remember...
The farthest depths that she could remember were here at the center...where there was a sudden plunging dip. Stefan had promised himself he would not go deeply into her mind, but he was being pul ed, helpless, being dragged down by the whirlpool. The waters closed over his head and he was drawn at tremendous speed to the very depths of a second pool, this one not composed of tranquility, but of rage and fear.
And then he saw what had happened, what was happening, what would forever be happening - there at Meredith's stil center.
Chapter 11
When M. le Princess Jessalyn D'Aubigne had drunk her fil of Damon's blood - and she was thirsty for such a fragile thing - it was Damon's turn. He forced himself to remain patient when Jessalyn flinched and frowned at the sight of his ironwood knife. But Damon teased her and joked with her and played chasing games up and down the enormous bed, and when he final y caught her, she scarcely felt the knife's sting at her throat.
Damon, though, had his mouth on the dark red blood that wel ed out immediately. Everything he'd done, from pouring Black Magic for Bonnie to pouring out the star bal 's liquid at the four corners of the Gate to making his way through the defenses of this tiny gem of a castle had been for this. For this moment, when his human palate could savor the nectar that was vampire blood.
And it was...heavenly!
This was only the second time in his life that he'd tasted it as a human. Katerina - Katherine, as he thought of her in English - had been the first, of course. And how she could have crept off after that and gone, wearing just her short muslin shift, to the wide-eyed, inexperienced little boy who was his brother, he would never understand.
His disquiet was spreading to Jessalyn. That mustn't happen. She had to stay calm and tranquil as he took as much as he could of her