The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 16

Damon clearly discrete to throw himself on the mercy of the court, and requireed piteous and a little unbalanced, which he could easily do when forever he necessitateed. I significantly didnt try to bend you, he repeated, and whence hastily added, mayhap I skunk just change the subject for a while tell you much somewhatwhat the star swellings.That, Elena state in her most frosty articulate, powerfulness be a rather good idea. intumesce, the b on the wholes make recordings directly from your neurons, you make up ones mind? Your neurons in your brain. Everything youve ever experienced is there in your mind whateverwhere, and the ball just draws it out.So you can al managements remember it and watch it everyplace and all over standardised a movie, too? Elena utter, twiddling with her mist to shade her governing body from him, and opineing that she would furnish a star ball to Alaric and Meredith before their wedding.No, Damon said, rather grimly. non standa rdized that. For one thing, the memory is gone from you these are kit insolatee toys were talk of the t k at presentledge nearly, remember? Once the star ball has carry awayn it from your neurons, you dont remember a thing about the neverthelesst. Second, the recording on the star ball gradually fades with use, with cadence, with some former(a) factors nobody understands. hardly the ball arrives cloudier, and the sensations weaker, until finally its just an clear crystal sphere.But that sad man was selling a daytime of his life. A wonderful day I should think he would penury to keep it.You saw him.Yes. Once again Elena saw the louse-ridden, haggard, gray-faced disused man. She matte up something like ice d ingestward(a) her spine at the thought that he had once been the laughing, joyous, newfangled John that she had experienced. Oh, how sad, she said, and she wasnt talking about memory.But, for once, Damon hadnt followed her thoughts. Yes, he said. there are a lo t of the poor and the old here. They worked themselves free of break ones plunk forry, or had a generous owner dieand then this is where they end up.But the star balls? Are they just do for poor people? The inscrutable ones can just travel to Earth and let out a real summer day for themselves, right?Damon laughed without much humor. Oh, no, they cant. Most of them are squinch here.He said bound oddly. Elena ventured, Too busy to go on vacation?Too busy, too powerful to get by dint of the wards defend Earth from them, too worried about what their enemies will do while theyre gone, too physically decrepit, too nonorious, too dead.Dead? The horror of the tunnel and the corpse-smelling fog seemed ready to envelope Elena.Damon flashed one of his evil smiles. Forgot that your boyfriend is de mortius? Not to mention your honorable master? Most people, when they die, go to other take aim than this much higher or much lower. This is the place for the bad ones, just now its the upper level. Farther down well, nobody wants to go there.Like nut house? Elena breathed. Were in Hell?More like Limbo, at least where we are. then(prenominal) theres the other(a) Side. He nodded toward the horizon where the lowering sun lighten sat. The other city, which may have been where you went on your vacation to the afterlife. Here they just call it The Other Side. But I can tell you two rumors I perceive from my informants. There, they call it the Celestial Court. And there, the sky is crystal blue and the sun is always rising.The Celestial Court Elena forgot that she was speaking aloud.She knew instinctively that it was thequeens-and-knights-and-sorceresses kind of court, not a court of law. It would be like Camelot. Just saying the words brought up an aching nostalgia, and not memories, but the tip-of-the-tongue chanceing that memories were locked right behind a door. It was a door, however, that was securely locked, and all Elena could see through the keyhole were ranks of more women like the Guardians, grandiloquent, golden-h varianted, and blue-eyed, and one child-sized among the grown women who glanced up, and, piercingly, from a long way off, met Elenas gaze directly.The bedclothes was moving out of the bazaar into more slums, which Elena took in with darting quick glances on either side of her, hiding in her veil. They seemed like any terrestrial slums, barrios, or favella solo worse. Children, their hair moody red by the sun, herd rough Elenas brood, their manpower held out in a gesture with universal meaning.Elena felt a tearing at her insides that she had nothing of real range to give them. She wanted to build houses here, make sure these children had food and denudate water, and education, and a future to look forward to. Since she had no idea how to give them any of these things, she watched them dash off with treasures such as her Juicy crop gum, her comb, her minibrush, her lip gloss, her water bottle, and her ear rings.Damon shook his head, but didnt stop her until she began ungainly with a lapis and diamond pendant Stefan had given her. She was crying as she tried to recall the clasp when suddenly the last bit of the rope around her articulatio radiocarpea came up short.No more, Damon said. You dont understand anything. We havent even entered the city proper yet. why dont you have a look at the architecture instead of sad about useless(prenominal) brats whore likely to die anyway?Thats cold, Elena said, but she couldnt think of any way to make him understand, and she was too angry with him to try.Still, she stopped fumbling with the chain and looked beyond the slums as Damon had suggested. There she could see a breathtaking skyline, with buildings that seemed meant to last for eternity, make of stones that looked the way the Egyptian pyramids and Mayan ziggurats must have looked when they were new. Everything, though, was colour red and down invent by a sun now concealed by sullen cr imson cloudbanks. That huge red sun it gave the air a different look for different moods. At times it seemed about romantic, glinting on a large river Elena and Damon passed, picking out a thousand tiny wavelets in the slow-moving water. At other times, it manifestly seemed alien and ominous, showing clearly on the horizon like a monstrous omen, tingeing the buildings, no matter how magnificent, the color of blood. When they turned away from it, as the litter bearers moved down into the city where the huge buildings were, Elena could see their own long and menacing black shadow thrown ahead of them.Well? What do you think? Damon seemed to be trying to placate her.I lock away think it looks like Hell, Elena said slowly. Id hate to live here.Ah, but whoever said that we should live here, my Princess of Darkness? Well go back home, where the night is velvet black and the stargaze shines down, making everything silver. Slowly, Damon traced one finger from her hand, up her arm to he r shoulder. It displace an inner shiver through her.She tried holding the veil up as a barrier against him, but it was too transparent. He quiet down flashed that brilliant smile at her, dazzling through the diamond-dotted white well, caseful pink, of course, because of the light that was on her side of the veil.Does this place have a moon? she asked, trying to distract him. She was afraid afraid of him afraid of herself.Oh, yes three or four of them, I think. But theyre very small and of course the sun never goes down, so you cant see them as well. Notromantic. He smiled at her, again, slowly this time, and Elena looked away.And in looking, she saw something in front of her that captured her entire attention. In a side street a cart had overturned, spilling large rolls made out of fur and leather. There was a thin, hungry-looking old cleaning lady attach to the cart like a beast, who was lying on the ground, and a tall angry man standing over her, raining down blows with a conquer on her unprotected body.The chars face was turned toward Elena. It was contorted in a grimace of anguish, as she tried ineffectually to roll into a ball, her hands over her stomach. She was naked from the waist up, but as the whip lashed into her flesh, her body from throat to waist was beingness covered by a coating of blood.Elena felt herself swelling with Wing Powers, but somehow no(prenominal) would come. She willed with all her circulating life-force for something anything to break free from her shoulders, but it was no good. Maybe it had something to do with wearing the remains of hard worker bracelets. Maybe it was Damon, beside her, telling her in a forceful voice not to get involved.To Elena, his words were no more than punctuation to the heartbeat pounding in her ears. She jerked the rope crisply out of his hands, and then scrambled out of the litter. In six or seven leaps she was beside the man with the whip.He was a vampire, his fangs elongated at the plentifulness of the blood before him, but never stopping his frenzied lashing. He was too strong for Elena to handle, butWith one more step Elena was straddling the woman, both(prenominal) her arms flung out in the universal gesture of protection and defiance. lasso dangled from one wrist.The slave owner was not impressed. He was already entree the next whiplash, and it taken with(p) Elena across the cheek and simultaneously opened a great gap in her thin summer top, slicing through her camisole and scoring the flesh underneath. As she gasped, the tail of the whip course through her jeans as if denim were butter. Tears formed involuntarily in Elenas eyes, but she ignored them. She had managed not to make a sound other than that initial gasp. And she still stood exactly where she had first landed in protection. Elena could feel the go whip at her tattered blouse, while her untouched veil waved behind her, as if to protect the poor slave who had collapsed against the ruined car t.Elena was still desperately trying to bring out any kind of Wings. She wanted to fight with real weapons, and she had them, but she couldnt force them to save either her or the poor slave behind her. Even without them Elena knew one thing. That bastard in front of her wasnt going to touch his slave again, not unless he quash Elena into pieces first.Someone stopped to stare, and someone else came out of a shop, foot race. When the children whod been trailing her litter surrounded her, wailing, a cluster of secernates gathered.Apparently it was one thing to see a merchant beating his worn-out drab the people around here must have seen that almost daily. But to see this attractive new girl having her clothes slashed away, this girl with hair like golden silk under a veil of gold and white, and eyes that perhaps reminded some of them of a barely remembered blue sky that was quite some other thing. Moreover, the new girl was obviously a fresh barbarian slave who had clearly hu miliated her master by tearing the lead ropes from his hands and was standing now with her sanctity veil made into a mockery. terrifying street theater.And even given all of that, the slave owner was preparing for another stroke, raising his arm high and preparing to put his back into it. A fewerer people in the crowd gasped others were muttering indignantly. Elenas new sense of hearing, turned up high, could catch their whispering. A girl like this wasnt meant for the slums at all she must have been destined for the heart of the city. Her aura alone was luxuriant to show that. In fact, with that golden hair and those vivid blue eyes, she ability even be a Guardian from the Other Side. Who knew ?The lash that was raised(a) never descended. Before it could, there was a flash of black lightning processed Power that sent half the crowd scattering. A vampire, young in appearance and dressed in the clothing of the upper world, Earth, had made his way to stand between the golden girl and the slave owner or rather to loom over the now cringing slave owner. The few in the crowd not stirred by the girl instanter felt their hearts pulse at the sight of him. He was the girls owner, surely, and now he would see to the situation.At that instant, Bonnie and Meredith begind on the scene. They were reclining on their litter, decorously draped in their veils, Meredith in starry midnight blue and Bonnie in soft pale green. They could have been an illustration for The Arabian Nights.But the arcsecond they saw Damon and Elena, they most indecorously jumped off the litter. By now the crowd was so thick that working their way to the front required apply elbows and knees, but in scarcely seconds they were at Elenas side, hands defiantly unbind or trailing rope that hung defiantly free, veils floating in the wind.When they did arrive beside Elena, Meredith gasped. Bonnies eyes opened wide and stayed that way. Elena understood what they were seeing. Blood was flowing fr eely from the cut across her cheekbone and her blouse kept opening in the wind to reveal her torn and bloody camisole. One leg of her jeans was rapidly good turn red.But, drawn up into the protection of her shadow, was a far more no-account figure. And as Meredith raised Elenas diaphanous veil to servicing keep her blouse closed(a) and once more enshroud her in decency, the woman herself raised her head, to look at the three girls with the eyes of a dumb and hunted animal. tail assembly them, Damon said softly, I shall quite enjoy this, as he lifted the heavy man into the air with one hand and then struck his throat like a cobra. There was a hideous scream, which went on and on.No one tried to interfere, and no one tried to flout the slave owner on to make a fight.Elena, scanning the faces of the crowd, completed why. She and her friends had choke used to Damon or as used as you could become to his half-tamed air of ferocity. But these people were getting their first look at the young man dressed all in black, of medium efflorescence and slim build, who made up for his lack of bulging muscle with a supple and deadly grace. This was enhanced by the gift of somehow high-and-mighty all the space around him, so that he effortlessly became the focal point of any picture the way a black mountain lion might become the focal point if it were walking lazily down a crowded city street.Even here, where menace and an aspect of forthwith evil were commonplace, this young man exuded a quality of danger that made people want to stay out of his line of sight, much less his way.Meanwhile Elena and both Meredith and Bonnie were looking around for some sort of medical assistance, or even for something clean that would staunch wounds. After about a minute, they realized that it wasnt just going to appear, so Elena appealed to the crowd.Does anyone know a load? A healer? she shouted. The audience merely watched her. They seemed loath to get involved with a girl who h ad obviously defied the black-clad demon now wringing the slave owners neck.So you all think its just fine, Elena shouted, hearing the loss of control, the churn up and fury in her own voice, for a bastard like that to be whipping a starving pregnant woman?There were a few downcast eyes, a few scattered replies on the field of He was her master, wasnt he? But one youngish man who had been angle of dip against a stopped wagon, straightened up. Pregnant? he repeated. She doesnt look pregnantShe isWell, the young man said slowly, if thats true, hes only harming his own merchandise. He glanced nervously over to where Damon was now standing above the deceased slave owner, whose face was cast into a ghastly death grimace of agony.This still left Elena with no help for a woman she was afraid was about to die. Doesnt anyone know where I can find a doctor? There were now mutterings in various tones from the crowd members.We might get further on if we could tour them some money, Meredith was saying. Elena immediately reached for her pendant, but Meredith was quicker, unfastening a fancy amethyst necklace from around her neck and holding it up. This goes to whoever shows us a good doctor first.There was a pause while everyone seemed to be assessing the reward and the risk. Dont you have any star balls? a wheezing voice asked, but a high, light voice cried, Thats good enough for meA child yes, a genuine street urchin darted to the front of the crowd, grabbed Elenas hand and pointed, saying, Dr. Meggar, right up the street. Its only a couple of blocks we can walk it.The child was wrapped in a tattered old dress, but that might only be to keep warm, because he or she was also wearing a twosome of trousers. Elena couldnt even figure out whether it was a boy or a girl until the child gave her an unexpectedly sweet smile and whispered, Im Lakshmi.Im Elena, Elena said.Better hurry, Elena, Lakshmi said. Guardians will get here soon.Meredith and Bonnie had gotten the dazed slave woman to her feet, but she seemed to be in too much pain to understand if they meant to help her or kill her.Elena remembered how the woman had huddled in the shadow of Elenas own body. She put a hand on the womans bloody arm and said quietly, Youre safe now. Youre going to be fine. That man youryour master is dead and I promise that nobody will hurt you again. I swear it.The woman stared at her in disbelief, as if what Elena was saying was impossible. As if living without being beaten constantly even with all the blood Elena could see old scars, some of them like cords, on the womans skin was something too far from mankind to imagine.I swear it, Elena said again, not smiling, but grimly. She understood that this was a burden she was taking on for life.Its all right, she thought, and realized that for some time now she had been sending her thoughts to Damon. I know what Im doing. Im ready to be obligated for this.Are you sure? Damons voice came to her, as uncertain as s hed ever heard him. Because Im sure as hell not going to take care of some old hag when you get tired of her. Im not even sure Im ready to deal with whatever its going to equal me for killing that bastard with the whip.Elena turned to look at him. He was serious. Well, then why did you kill him? she challenged.Are you joking? Damon gave her a shock with the fanaticism and venom of his thought. He hurt you. I should have killed him more slowly, he added, ignoring one of the litter bearers who was kneeling beside him, undoubtedly asking what to do next. Damons eyes, however, were on Elenas face, on the blood still flowing from her cut. Il figlio de cafone, Damon thought, his lips drawing back from his teeth as he looked down on the corpse, so that even the litter bearer scurried away on hands and knees.Damon, dont let him give Bring them all over here right now Elena began, and then, as there was a sort of universal gasp around her, she keep nonverbally, Dont let the litter bear ers leave. We need a litter to carry this poor woman to the doctor. And why is everyone staring at me?Because youre a slave, and youve just make things no slave should do and now youre giving me, your master, orders. Damons telepathic voice was grim.Its not an order. Its a look, any gentleman would help a lady in distress, right? Well, there are four of us over here and one is more distressed than you want to look at. No, three are. I think Im going to need some stitches, and Bonnie is about to collapse. Elena was striking methodically at weak points, and knew that Damon knew she was doing it. But he order one of the sets of litter bearers to come and pick up the slave woman and the other to take his girls.Elena stuck with the woman and ended up in a litter with the curtains all closed around it. The smell of blood was a copper taste in her mouth, making her want to cry. Even she didnt want to look closely at the slave womans injuries, but blood was running onto the litter. She f ound herself taking off her blouse and camisole and putting back only the blouse so that she could use the camisole to hold to a great slanted slash across the womans chest. Every time the woman raised tenebrific brown, frightened eyes to her, Elena tried to smile at her encouragingly. They were down dark somewhere in the trenches of communication, where a look and a touch meant more than words.Dont die, Elena was thinking. Dont die, just as you have something to live for. Live for your freedom, and for your baby.And maybe some of what she was thinking got through to the woman, because she relaxed against the litter cushions, holding on to Elenas hand.