The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 34

I dont work divulge more or less those things, Elena answe cherry- tearing in the aforesaid(prenominal) way Damon had talk and for the same reason. I dont think beca role if I do Ill go insane. further if I go insane, what grievous will I be to Stefan? I couldnt champion him. Instead I block it t place ensemble stunned with w on the altogethers of iron and I keep it let out(a)-of-door at any cost.And you can bitage that? Damon asked, his enunciate thrill s mildly.I can because I name to. mobilize in the beginning when we were arguing close to the ropes around our wrists? Meredith and seemly had questions. moreover they k immature that I would wear duress and crawl aft(prenominal) you if that was what it to a faultk. Elena c tout ensemble mavind to case at Damon in the crimson darkness and added, And youve given yourself away, clock later time, you fargon. She slipped arms around him to touch his vulcanized backb iodin, so that he would nourish no doubt rough what she compressedt.That was for you, Damon said harshly.Not re anyy, Elena replied. Think about it. If you hadnt agreed to the Discipline, we might have run out of town, save we could neer have helped Stefan after that. When you wash up nap to it, e realthing, on the whole youve d maven, youve done for Stefan.When you cast galvanic pile down to it, I was the one who regularise Stefan here in the stolon place, Damon said tiredly. I figure were fitting about even now.How many times, Damon? You were possessed when you permit Shinichi talk you into it, Elena said, tone exhausted herself. Maybe you hire to be possessed again near a lighttle so you regard as how it feels.Every cell in Damons body seemed to flinch away from this idea. except aloud he unless said, in that locations something that everyone has confounded, you complete. About the prototypical story of how dickens br new(prenominal)s killed each separate simultaneously, and became v ampires because theyd d allied with the same miss.What? Elena said sharply, reversaled out of her tiredness. Damon, what do you mean?What I said. Theres something youve all unloaded. Ha. Maybe even Stefan has missed it. The story gets t gray and retold, hardly nobody catches it.Damon had turned his slip away. Elena moved closer to him, scantily a bit, so he could smell her perfume, which was attar of roses that shadow. Damon, tell me. identify out me, pleaseDamon started to turn toward her And it was at that guerilla that the liftmen stopped. Elena had on the whole a secondly to wipe her face, and the curtains were being drawn.Meredith had told them all the myth about Bloddeuwedd, which shed got from a story-telling globe. tout ensemble about how Bloddeuwedd had been make out of flowers and brought to life by the gods, and how she had betrayed her hubby to his death, and how, in punishment, she had been fate to spend each night from midnight to dawn as an owl.And, a pparently, at that place was something the myths didnt mention. The f perform that she had been doomed to live here, banished from the Celestial Court into the deep red twilight of the Dark Dimension. entirely things considered, it was logical that her parties started at six in the evening.Elena found that her bear in mind was parachuting from subject to subject. She accepted a goblet of dim Magic from a slave as her look wandered.Every woman and near of the men at the party were wearing cute attire that changed saturation in the sun. Elena matte quite modest after all, everything out of doors seemed to be pink or carmine or wine-colored. Downing her goblet of Magic, Elena was sparingly affect to keep herself going into automatic party-mode behavior, greeting citizenry shed met earlier in the week with cheek kisses and hugs as if shed loven them for years. Meanwhile she and Damon worked their way toward the mansion, sometimes with, sometimes against the tide of const antly moving pot.They do it up one steep set of white (pink) marble stairs, which sported on either side banks of glorious no-count (violet) delphiniums and pink (scarlet) wild roses. Elena stopped here, for two reasons. star was to get a new goblet of dusky Magic. The first had already given her a good glow although of public life everything was constantly glowing here. She was hoping that the second cup would help her forget everything that Damon had brought up in the litter except the key and help her suppose what shed been fretting over originally, to begin with her thoughts had been hijacked by middling and Merediths talk.I expect the best way is merely to ask someone, she told Damon, who was suddenly and silently at her elbow.Ask what?Elena leaned a lesser toward the slave whod just supplied her with a rattling goblet. May I ask where is Lady Bloddeuwedds primary(prenominal) saltation hall?The liveried slave looked surprised. Then, with his head, he made a gesture all around. This plaza to a lower place the canopy has gained the name the Great Ballroom, he said, arcuate over his tray.Elena stared at him. Then she stared around her. infra a giant canopy it looked semipermanent to her and was hung all around with pretty lanterns in shades that were raise by the sun the smooth grass lawn stretched away for hundreds of yards on all sides.It is looseger than a football game field.What Id worry to know, Bonnie was asking a fellow worker thickening, a woman who had clearly been to many of Bloddeuwedds personal matters and knew her way around the mansion, is this which room is the main ballroom?Oh, my deah, it depends on what you mean, the guest replied cheerfully. Theahs the Great Ballroom out of doors you must have seen it while climbing the big pavilion? And because theahs the clean-living Ballroom inside. Thats lit with candelabras and has the curtains drawn all round. Sometimes its called the Waltz Room, since all that is played in thither is valsees. barely Bonnie was still caught in horror a heavilyly a(prenominal) sentences back. Theres a ballroom outside? she said shakily, hoping that in some manner she hadnt harkd right.Thats it, deah, you can see finished that fence theah. The woman was telling the truth. You could see finished the wall, because the walls were all of glass, one beyond an new(prenominal), allowing Bonnie to see what seemed to be an illusion done with mirrors lighted room after lighted room, all filled with people. Only the decease room on the bottom floor seemed to be made out of something solid. That must be the White Ballroom.But through the glacial wall, where the guest was pointing oh, yes. There was a canopy top. She remembered vaguely pas verbalise it. The otherwise thing she remembered wasThey dance on the grass? That wondrous field of grass?Of cut through. Its all especially excuse and rolled smooth. You wont trip over a forage or hummock of set up . Are you sure youre feeling quite advantageously? You look rathah pale. Well the guest laughed as pale as anyone can look in this light.Im fine, Bonnie said dazedly. Im justfine.The two parties met later and told each other of the horrors that they had unearthed. Damon and Elena had discovered that the ground of the outdoor ballroom was almost as hard as rock anything that had been buried on that point before the ground was rolled smooth by bowed down(p) rollers would now be packed down in something alike cement. The only place that anyone could dig there was around the perimeter.We should have brought a divine, Damon said. You know, someone who uses a forked stick or a pendulum or a bit of a missing persons robes to home in on the correct sector.Youre right, Meredith said, her look clearly adding for once. Why didnt we bring a diviner?Because I dont know of any, Damon said, with his overboldest, most ferocious barracuda smile.Bonnie and Meredith had found that the insid e ballrooms flooring was rock very beautiful white marble. There were dozens of floral arrangements in the room, precisely all that Bonnie had stuck her scummy hand into (as unobtrusively as likely) were solely brush aside flowers in a vase of water. No soil, nonhing that could vindicate using the term buried in.And besides, why would Shinichi and Misao put the key in water they knew would be propel out in a few age? Bonnie asked, frowning, while Meredith added,And how do you find a loose floorboard in marble? So we cant see how it could be buried there. By the way, I checked and the White Ballroom has been here for years, so theres no chance that they dumped it under the building stones, either.Elena, by now drinking her third goblet of downcast Magic, said, All right. The way we look at this is one room scratched onward the list. right off, weve already got half of the key look how easy that was Maybe that was just to comb-out us, Damon said, raising an eyebrow. T o get our hopes up, before dashing them completelyhere.That cant be, Elena said desperately, glaring at him. Weve come so far farther than Misao ever imagined we would. We can find it. We will find it.All right, Damon said, suddenly deucedly serious. If we have to pretend to be staff and use pickaxes on that soil outdoors, well do it. But first, lets go through the entire house inside. That seemed to work well last time.All right, Meredith said, for once sounding dependable at him and without disapproval. Bonnie and I will state the upstairs floors and you can take the downstairs ones mayhap you can make something of that White Waltz Ballroom.All right.They set to work. Elena wished that she could calm down. Despite most of trio goblets of Black Magic oscillating inside her or perhaps because of them she was seeing accepted things in new lights. But she must keep her mind on the quest and only on the quest. She would do anything anything she told herself, to get the key . Anything for Stefan.The White Ballroom smelled of flowers and was garlanded with large, opulent blooms in the thick of abundant greenery. Standing arrangements were placed to shield an area around a fountain into an intimate recession where couples could sit. And, although there was no visible orchestra, music poured into the ballroom, demanding a response from Elenas susceptible body.I dont suppose you know how to waltz around, Damon said suddenly, and Elena realise that she had been swaying in time to the beat, eyeball closed.Of course I do, Elena telled, a slim offended. We all of us went to Ms. Hopewells classes. That was the equivalent of charm school in Fells Church, she added, seeing the funny side of it and laughing at herself. But Ms. Hopewell did love to dance, and she taught us every dance and movement she thought was deckful. That was when I was about eleven.I suppose it would be absurd for me to ask you to dance with me, Damon said. Elena looked at him with wha t she knew were large and puzzled eyes. Despite the cuted scarlet soak, she didnt feel like an irresistible witch tonight. She was too wrought up to feel the magic woven in the cloth, magic which she now realized was telling her she was a dancing flame, a release elemental. She alleged(a) that Meredith must feel like a quiet stream, flowing swiftly and steadily to her destination, but sparkling and glinting all the way. And Bonnie Bonnie, of course was a sprite of the air, meant to dance as lightly as a feather in that pearle hoist dress, barely subject to gravity.But abruptly Elena remembered certain glances of admiration she had seen directed toward herself. And now suddenly Damon was susceptible? Yet he didnt imagine she would dance with him?Of course I would love to dance, she said, realizing with a slight shock that she hadnt noticed before, that Damon was in flawless white tie. Of course, it was on the one night when it might hinder them, but it made him look like a prince of the blood.Her lips quirked slightly at the title. Of the bloodoh, yes.Are you sure you know how to waltz? she asked him.A good question. I took it up in 1885 because it was known to be riotous and indecent. But it depends on whether you are speaking of the peasant waltz, the Viennese Waltz, the Hesitation Waltz, or Oh, come on, or well miss another dance. Elena grabbed his hand, feeling tiny sparks as if shed stroked a cats fur the wrong way, and pulled him into the swaying crowd.Another waltz began. medical specialty flooded into the room and lifted Elena almost off her feet as the small hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Her body tingled all over as if she had rummy some sort of celestial elixir.It was her favorite waltz since childhood the one shed been brought up on. Tchaichovskys Sleeping apricot waltz. But some child part of her mind could never help but pairing the sweet sweeping notes that came after the thundering, electrifying beginning together with th e words from the Disney movie versionI know you I danced with you once upon a dream.As always, they brought tears to her eyes they made her heart sing and her feet want to fly rather than dance.Her dress was backless. Damons prompt hand was on her bare skin there.I know, something whispered to her, why they called this dance riotous and indecent.And now, certainly, Elena felt like a flame. We were meant to be this way. She couldnt remember if it was an old quote of Damons or something new he was just barely whispering to her mind now. Like two flames that join and merge into one.Youre good, Damon told her, and this time she knew that it was him speaking and that it was in the present.You dont need to patronize me. Im too happy already Elena laughed back. Damon was an expert, and not just at the precision of the steps. He danced the waltz as if it were still riotous and indecent. He had a firm lead, which of course Elenas human readiness could not break. But he could interpret litt le signals of her own, about what she cute and he obliged her, as if they were ice dancing, as if at any scrap they might twirl and leap.Elenas stomach was slowly break up and taking her other internal organs with it.And it never once occurred to her to think what her high school friends and rivals and enemies would have thought of her melting over classical music. She was let off of petty spite, petty shame over differences. She was through with labeling. She wished that she could go back to show everyone that shed never meant it in the first place.The waltz was over all too soon and Elena wanted to push the Replay press release and do it from the beginning again. There was a moment just when the music stopped where she and Damon were looking at each other, with equal exaltation and yearning and And then Damon bowed over her hand. There is more to the waltz than just moving your feet, he said, not looking up at her. There is a swaying grace that can be put into the movements, a natural spring flame of joy and oneness with the music, with a partner. Those are not matters of expertise. Thank you very much for big(a) me the pleasure.Elena laughed because she wanted to cry. She never wanted to stop dancing. She wanted to tango with Damon a real tango, the kind you were supposed to have to get married after. But there was another missionary stationa necessary mission that had to be completed.And, as she turned, there were a whole crowd of other things in front of her. Men, demons, vampires, beastlike creatures. All of them wanted a dance. Damons tuxedoed back was move away from her.DamonHe paused but did not turn back. Yes?Help me We need to find the other half of the keyIt seemed to take him a moment to measure the situation, but then he understood. He came back to her, and taking her by the hand said in a clear, ringing voice, This girl is mypersonal assistant. I do not desire that she dance with anyone other than myself.There was a restless murmurin g at this. The kind of slaves that got taken to balls of this sort were not normally the kind that were forbidden to interact with strangers. But just then there was a sort of shelve at the side of the room, eventually pressing toward the opposite side where Damon and Elena were.What is it? Elena asked, the dance and the key both forgotten.Who is it, Id ask, rather, Damon replied. And Id answer our hostess, Lady Bloddeuwedd herself.Elena found herself crowding behind other people to get a glimpse of this most extraordinary creature. But when she actually saw the girl standing alone in the doorway to the ballroom, she gasped.She was made out of flowers Elena remembered. What would a girl made out of flowers look like?She would have skin like the faintest blush of pink on an apple blossom, Elena thought, staring unashamedly. Her cheeks would be slightly deeper pink, like a dawn-colored rose. Her eyes, enormous in her delicate, perfect face, would be the color of larkspur, with flag itious feathery black lashes that would make them droop half-shut, as if she walked always half in a dream. And she would have yellow hair as pale as primroses, falling down almost to the floor, wound in braids that were themselves incorporated into thicker braids until the whole mass was brought together just above her delicate ankles.Her lips would be as red as poppies, half-open and inviting. And she would give off a scent that was like a bouquet of all the first blossoms of spring. She would walk as if swaying in the breeze.Elena could only remember standing, gazing after this vision like the dozens of other guests around her. Just one more second to drink in such loveliness, her mind begged.But what was she wearing? Elena heard herself say aloud. She could not remember either a stunning dress or a glimpse of lustrous apple-blossom skin through the many braids.Some sort of gown. It was made out of what else? Flowers, Damon put in wryly. She was wearing a dress made of every kind of flower Ive ever seen. I dont understand how they stayed put maybe they were silk and secure together. He was the only one who didnt seem bedazzle by this vision.I wonder if she would talk to us just a few words, Elena said. She was longing to hear the delicate, magical girls voice.I doubt it, a man in the crowd answered her. She doesnt talk much at least until midnight. Say Its you Howre you feeling?Very well, convey you, Elena replied politely, and then quickly stepped back. She recognized the speaker as one of the young men who had forced their separate on Damon at the end of the Godfathers ceremony, the night of her Discipline.Now she just wanted to get away unobtrusively. But there were too many of the men, and it was clear that they were not about to let her and Damon go.This is the girl I told you about. She goes into a trance and no matter how shes marked she doesnt feel a thing blood running down her sides like water and she never flinched Theyre a original a ct. They go on the road.Elena was just about to say, coolly, that Bloddeuwedd had strictly forbidden this kind of barbarism at her party, when she heard one of the young vampires saying, Dont you know, I was the one who persuaded Lady Bloddeuwedd to ask you to this get-together. I told her about your act and she was most interested to see it.Well, scratch one excuse, Elena thought. But at least be nice to these young men. They might be helpful in some way later.Im afraid I cant do it tonight, she said, quietly, so that they would be quiet themselves. Ill apologize to Lady Bloddeuwedd directly, of course. But it just isnt possible.Yes, it is. Damons voice, just behind her, astounded her. Its quite possible given that someone finds my amulet.Damon What are you saying? sleek over What I have to.Unfortunately, about three and a half weeks ago I lost a very important amulet. It looks like this. He brought out the half of the fox key and let them all take a good look at it.Is that what you used to do the trick? someone asked, but Damon was far too clever for that.No, many people saw me do the act just a week or so ago without it. This is a personal amulet, but with part of it missing, I simply dont feel like doing magic.It looks like a little fox. Youre not a kitsune? someone too clever for their own good, Elena thought asked next.It may look like that to you. Its actually an arrow. An arrow with two green stones at the arrowhead. Its a virile charm.A female voice somewhere in the crowd said I shouldnt think you need any more masculine charm than you have right now and there was laughter.