Authors: L. J. Smith
Destiny Rising (25 page)
M
eredith ran across campus, her feet pounding in a steady rhythm, her breath coming in harsh, painful gasps. Her legs were aching. She’d been running for a long time, looping across the campus paths again and again. Stinging sweat trickled into her eyes, making them blink and water.
The harder she ran, the longer she could keep herself from thinking about anything except the slap of her running shoes against the ground or the sound of her own breath.
The day was starting to edge into evening as she took the curve past the history building again and started up the hill toward the dining hall. When she crested the hill, Alaric was waiting at the top.
“Hi,” Meredith said, coming to a stop as she drew even with him. “Are you waiting for me?” She pulled up one foot to stretch out her quadriceps; she didn’t want to cramp up.
“I wanted to make sure that you were okay,” Alaric said.
“I’m fine,” Meredith said dully. She let her foot drop and instead laced her hands behind her and folded forward, so that her head was almost touching her knees. She could feel her spine lengthening, and she had also begun to feel the ache from running for so long.
“Meredith?” Alaric knelt down beside her so that he could look up into her face. Meredith concentrated on the golden freckles scattered across his nose and the tops of his cheekbones, because she didn’t want to meet his worried brown eyes. Their color was like honey against his tanned skin.
“Meredith?” Alaric said again. “Could you unpretzel yourself and talk to me for a minute? Please?”
Meredith unfolded, but didn’t meet Alaric’s eyes. Instead, she twisted from side to side, pulling her shoulders forward in turn. “I have to stretch or my muscles will get sore,” she muttered.
Alaric stood and watched her, waiting calmly.
After a while, Meredith began to feel childish for not meeting Alaric’s gaze, and she straightened and looked him squarely in the eye. He was still just standing there patiently, his face soft with sympathy.
“I know,” she said. “I know everything you’re going to say.”
“Do you?” Alaric asked. He reached out and tucked back a long piece of hair that had come out of her ponytail, his hand lingering against her cheek. “Because I don’t have the faintest idea what to say. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to meet your brother for the first time and then have to kill him.”
“Yeah,” Meredith sighed, and wiped the sweat off her face. “I don’t know what to feel, either. It’s almost like Cristian was never real to me. He was just a
story
, something the Guardians could change in an instant
.
”
She drew a line with the toe of her sneaker in the dust at the side of the path. “Ultimately,” she said, “I never knew him at all. He talked about . . . oh, going to the beach and stuff, and the way our dad is. I could imagine that world, the world where we were a team.” She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. “But everything was a lie, for him and for me.”
Alaric wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled Meredith closer to him. “It’s not fair,” he said seriously. “Klaus destroyed a lot of people’s lives. In the end, you were a big part of bringing him down and stopping that destruction, and you should be proud of that. And that other life, the one where he grew up happy, with a sister, it wasn’t a lie. There was a world where Cristian loved you, and you loved him. That’s still true. You and your friends made that happen.”
Burying her face against Alaric’s neck, Meredith said in a muffled voice, “My parents will never get over this, losing him again.”
“Maybe it’s better that they knew Cristian for this long, that they got to see him grow up instead of losing him when he was three, the way things were in the world you remember,” Alaric suggested gently.
“Maybe.” Meredith rolled her head on Alaric’s shoulder until she was leaning against his shoulder and gazing out across the campus. “Do you know what Cristian said to me, at the end? I was about to stake him, and he said in this low, sort of secretive voice, ‘Dad would be so proud of you.’ And you know what? He was right. Maybe part of Cristian wanted me to kill him, for me to be strong.”
Alaric tightened his arms around her. “You
are
strong, Meredith. You’re the bravest person I’ve ever known.”
“You’re brave, too,” Meredith said, sinking into his embrace. She thought of Alaric chanting spells, trying to raise Power to protect them all during the battle, going up against a vampire army with nothing but a stake and a spell book. “I love you so much,” she said. “I want you with me, always.”
Alaric’s lips brushed across the back of her neck. “Me too,” he murmured. “It’s an honor to fight beside you, Meredith Sulez. And don’t you ever forget it.”
A
bove Elena’s and Damon’s heads, the stars glittered in great long swathes across the dark night. The air was clear and chilly with the smells of autumn, and the sky seemed so deep that Elena felt like she could just fall into it, swim farther and farther among the stars forever.
“So,” Damon said dryly. “You managed to avoid killing me. I suppose I should be grateful?”
The bond between them hummed with wry humor, and more than a touch of nervousness. It was strange being able to read Damon’s emotions like this, seeing more than he allowed to show on his face. “Gratitude would be nice,” she said cautiously, “but it’s not necessary. Just try to keep returning the favor, okay?”
She felt him startle a little beside her, a shock zinging along their bond, and then he said, breezily, “Oh, I’d almost forgotten. You’re trusting me not to hurt you, then?”
Elena stopped walking and put her hand on Damon’s arm, pulling him to a stop beside her. “Yes,” she said, gazing steadily into his eyes, letting him see the love she carried for him. “I am. You’ve been a lot of things, Damon Salvatore, but you’ve always been a gentleman.”
Damon’s eyes widened, and then he gave her the lovely, sweet smile she had seen for the first time in Stefan’s room. “Well,” he said, “it would break all the rules of chivalry to disappoint a lady.”
Elena tipped her head back and gazed at the stars for a few minutes, enjoying the cool evening breeze that brushed her hair back from her face. With Klaus and his descendants gone, with Damon calm and peaceful at her side, it was good to be able to enjoy the night.
“Does your great trust in me mean you’re planning to take both Salvatore brothers for one more spin?” Damon asked, still looking up at the stars. His tone was definitely joking now, a bit rough, but Elena could hear an undercurrent of longing in it, and feel his wistfulness in the connection between them. In some ways, it would be so easy: she’d spent a long time suspended between the brothers, loving Stefan, wanting Damon. It was almost comfortable at this point to love them both. But she had grown up at least a little now, she thought, and maybe it was time to shut those doors forever, to choose her true path.
“You’ll always have a part of me, Damon.” She pressed her hand to her chest, where she could feel the slight tug and ebb of the bond between them. “But I want my forever to be with Stefan.”
“I know,” Damon said. He turned to face her and ghosted his hand lightly across her hair, down over her shoulders. “I think maybe it’s time for me to move on. There’s a big world out there, and there are still a few places I haven’t seen. Maybe there’s somewhere else I belong.”
Unexpectedly, Elena found herself crying, big, fat, babyish tears running hot over her cheeks and dripping off her chin. “You don’t have to go,” she choked. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“Hey,” Damon said, startled, and moved closer, running his hand gently across her back. “I won’t be gone forever. I think this slightly alarming
thing
between us”—he touched his chest lightly—“means I’ll never be too far away.”
“Oh,
Damon
,” Elena choked.
Damon looked down at her seriously for a long moment. “It’s the right thing, you know,” he said. “Not that I’ve ever been particularly interested in doing the right thing. I’ve got a sinking feeling I’m about to learn.”
He leaned down and brushed a light kiss across her mouth. His lips were soft and cold, and to Elena, they tasted like memories. Pulling back, he stood with her for a moment longer under the stars, his perfect pale skin shining in their light, his eyes gleaming, his velvety hair as dark as the night around them.
“Good-bye, Elena,” he said. “Don’t forget me.”
C
oncentrating, Stefan carefully knotted his tie. He looked, he knew, sleek and elegant in his best suit, a good match for lovely, golden Elena.
He’d made reservations at the nicest restaurant in town for a welcome-back dinner from her visit to Fell’s Church to see Aunt Judith and Margaret. Klaus was dead; Damon was saved. Just for once, there was time for Elena to be a college girl, have fun without doom hanging over her.
So: French food. Roses on the table. A night of forgetting their pasts and instead enjoying the present together, like any couple in love. He ran down the two flights of stairs between their rooms, feeling light with happiness.
Elena’s door was ajar. He tapped on it lightly, then pushed it inward, expecting to see Meredith and Bonnie bustling around Elena, helping her get ready for their big night.
Instead, the room was lit with candles, hundreds of tiny flames reflecting from the windows and mirrors to create a dazzling, glimmering play of light. Meredith and Bonnie were nowhere in sight and even their stuff seemed to have disappeared. The air was full of sweet scents, and Stefan saw scattered flowers among the candles: orchids and gardenias, orange blossoms and asters. In the language of flowers, all symbols of love in its many forms.
In the middle of the room stood Elena, dressed in a simple white sundress with lace detailing, waiting for him. He didn’t think he had ever seen her look more beautiful. Her creamy skin, touched with just the faintest wash of pink, her jewel-blue eyes, her golden hair, all caught the light of the candle flames, shining as if she were an angel. But most beautiful of all were not her features but the look of pure, open love on her face. When her gaze met Stefan’s, hers was full of fierce joy.
“Stefan,” she said quietly. “I finally know what our future will look like.”
Stepping forward into the room, Stefan came straight to her. However Elena saw their future, he would be there beside her, without question. He had learned long ago that his happiness, his life, was intimately tied to this one human girl, this one girl in all the world. He would go anywhere she wanted him to.
Elena took his hand and clasped it. “I love you, Stefan,” she said. “That’s the most important thing. I need to make sure you know it, because I haven’t always treated you as well as I should have.”
Stefan’s voice caught in his throat, but he smiled at her. “I love you, too,” he managed to say. “Always, always, always.”
“The first time I saw you—remember that? Back outside the main office in high school—you just brushed past me without even looking. Right then, I decided that I was going to have you, that you were going to fall in love with me. No boy was going to treat me like that.” Elena smiled a wry, self-deprecating smile. “But then you saved me from Tyler, and you were so sad and noble and
good
. I wanted to protect you, the way you’d protected me. And when we kissed, the whole world fell away.”
Stefan made a soft sound, remembering, and his hand turned in Elena’s grasp, twining their fingers together.
“You’ve saved me so many times and in so many ways, Stefan,” Elena went on, “and I’ve saved you. We’ve plotted and planned together, we’ve fought and defeated all our enemies. There isn’t anyone who loves me the way you do, and I could never love anyone else as much as I love you. I know what I want now. I want to be with you forever.”
She let go of Stefan’s hand and reached for something on the desk beside her that he hadn’t noticed before. It was a silver goblet, intricately worked with threads of gold and set with jewels, a precious and beautiful item. The goblet was full of what looked like pure, clear water. Except the water was glowing with a shining light. He glanced up at Elena in sudden comprehension, and she nodded.
“The water from the Fountain of Eternal Youth and Life,” she said solemnly. “I’ve always known that the day would come when I would drink it. I don’t want to live, or die, without you. There’s enough left for the others, if they want it someday. They might not. I don’t know if I’d want forever, if it wasn’t forever with you. I can’t—” Her voice broke. “I can’t imagine ever leaving you behind. But I had to wait until I was ready, until I was the person I wanted to be for the rest of forever. And now I know who I am.” Elena raised the goblet to Stefan. “If . . . if you’ll have me, Stefan, if you’ll have me forever, I want to spend it with you.”
Stefan’s heart was overflowing, and he felt a hot tear run down his cheek. He had spent so long in the darkness alone, so long as a monster. And then this creature of life and light had found him, and he hadn’t been alone anymore.
“Yes,” he said joyfully, “Elena, all I want out of forever is you.”
Elena raised the goblet and drank deeply, and then turned a happy, laughing face up to meet Stefan’s kiss. Her joy resonated through him as their lips connected, and he sent his own back to her.
Forever,
they both felt,
forever.
Stefan clung to her, almost overwhelmed. After more than five hundred years lost and wandering, he realized, he finally felt he was home for good.
D
ear Diary,
Forever.
The prospect should feel scary, I suppose: my time on Earth has been so relatively short. A lot has happened to me, more than most people get to experience in a lifetime, but I still have so much to learn and do.
But I’m sure of Stefan, and I’m sure about forever. All I can feel is overwhelming, riotous joy.
It’s not even just Stefan and me, and the prospect of eternity to learn all the little things we don’t know about each other, even yet: What was the color of Stefan’s mother’s eyes? What will his lips taste like, on a bright spring morning two hundred years from now? Where would he go, if he could go anywhere? And we can go everywhere. We’ll have time.
That’s so much of my happiness, but it’s not all of it.
I finally know who I am. It’s ironic in a lot of ways that I should be a Guardian, when I loathed and feared them with such passion. But an Earthly Guardian is different; Andrés has taught me that: I can be compassionate and loving and human, and I can use my Guardian Powers to protect my home, to protect the people I care about, to keep evil from destroying the innocent.
There’s my bond with Damon, too. Finally I know how I can care for Damon and love Stefan at the same time. There’s a connection between Damon and me that’ll last forever, that will keep him from being consumed by the darkness that has always threatened him. No matter where he is, I’ll hold a piece of him and he’ll have a piece of me.
Through everything, Stefan will be by my side.
And with us will be all my beloved friends, each of them so powerful and good, each in their own way. I love them all so much.
I’m trembling, but it’s with anticipation. I’m not afraid anymore. I can’t wait to see what the future holds, for all of us.