Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 13

That shadow I lay in bed, gazing up at the ceiling. The mope shone done the gauzy white curtains, and the house hummed with activity, a melee of footsteps, heartbeats, and mice skittering intimate the walls. It felt as though the entire house were alive, with the exception, of course, of myself and Damon. The Sutherlands had no idea, scarce when theyd opened their legal residence to me, they had invited Death in. I was a cancer on their happy existence, and soon the darkness would spread, eating by means of their world until on that point was nothing left.Though I was no willing participant in Damons twisted plan, it would be no different from how Katherine insinuated herself into my life and decimated the entire Salvatore family. ilk it or not, this familys well-being rested squarely on my shoulders. If Damon killed them, their blood would be on my hands, too. But how could I stop him? I was so frequently weaker than my brother, and I had no plans to begin feeding on human s once again for fear that Id be unable to stop.I rose from bed and pushed the curtains divagation with a violent flick. As I stared at the moon, that orb that had witnessed so much of my ill-doing, I replayed the conversation wed had with Margaret over and over in my head. The smashed set of her jaw. The clear tone of her eye. The way her lucid blue eyes had sized up me and Damon, as though she could have straight through our hide to our unbeating hearts. Winfield was ready to sign his fortune over to Damon, yet his fille remained immune to my brothers Power.But how?The only protection I knew against vampires was vervain, unless Id not inhaled its cloying scent since arriving in New York. When trying to draw aside Katherine, my father had spiked my whiskey with vervain, sending Katherine into a miasmic retard when she drank my blood. If only my father had thought to protect me sooner, he and I major power still be in Mystic Falls, poring over accounting books as I studied to take over Veritas.Sliding the window open, I stepped come out of the closet onto the narrow balcony. The night was eerily still. No wind rustled the trees, and blush the pigeons that roosted on the neighbors roof were quiet. My balcony searchd east, toward the muddy East River and the narrow expectorate of land they called Blackwells Island, where the city had recently rebuilt the lunatic asylum. A wry make a face twisted my lips. If only I could check Damon in there.But because I let out a groan and clutched the wrought-iron rail with my hands. I had to stop wishing and hoping and thinking of millions of if onlys. I could not wish Damon into forbearance and I could not rewrite the past. What was done was done. Even at my spot Power, I could not cause the world to spin patronageward, could not wind back time and undo what Katherine did to me and my family. But I was not feeble over the future. I had free will, I had experience, and I had the choice to fight.Hoisting m yself up on the rail, I leaped to the roof, landing on the tar with a softish thud. New York was a large city, and someone, somewhere, had to grow vervain or at least deem dried sprigs. Id run up and down the passages until I caught the telltale scent of the herb. Spiking Lydias drinks would be impossible Damon was feeding from her but if I could sightly sprinkle some in Winfields whiskeyI ran crosswise the roof, preparing to jump to that of the neighbor, before scaling down their fire escape to the street below.Where are you going, brother? The cheery words sliced through the night like gunshot, and I froze on the ledge.Slowly, I turned some to face a smiling Damon. He looked ready for the second part of his flush jaunt, wearing a three-piece suit and twirling a gold jaw in his hand. I recognized it immediately it had belonged to Callies father, the man who had imprisoned Damon, agonizing him and starving him before forcing him to do battle with a mountain lion. Damon m ust(prenominal) have stolen it after he killed Callie. Unbidden, an image of Callie bloomed in my mind. Her kind verdancy eyes smiling at me, the freckles that dusted every inch of her body, the way she had so bravely given herself to me on the shore of the lake, offering her blood however though she knew what I was and what I could do to her.Her dead, twisted body double-dealing in the grass behind Lexis house.You bastard, I said in a low, fury-filled voice that I barely recognized as my own. Rage that had been construction for weeks with no outlet tore through my veins, and I felt as though my muscles were on fire. With a growl, I threw myself at him. Why wont you just let me be?Our bodies collided, like stone on stone. Startled, Damon fell backward, but instantly he pushed me off and flipped to his feet. He wrapped his arms around my neck with a vise-like grip. If you were so desperate to be free of me, you shouldnt have forced me to become a vampire with you, he hissed, all t races of jollification gone from his demeanor. I struggled to free myself, but his knee pressed more forcefully into my spine, pinning me to the roof. You were the one who urged me to become what I am to see what Katherine gave us as a gift rather than a curse. consecrate me, I gasped, trying to twist from his grip. I would take it back if I could.Tsk-tsk, Damon chided. Didnt Father teach you that part of being a man is alert with your choices? He pressed my cheek into the tar roof, scraping open the skin there. Then again, you were such a disappointment to him at the end not wanting to marry Rosalyn, taking up with a vampire, killing himYou were eer a disappointment, I spat. I should have killed you when I had the chance.Damon let out a dry laugh. Well, that would have been a shame, because then I couldnt do this.The pressure on my spine abated as Damon hoisted me up by the back of the shirt.What are you I started.Before I could finish, Damon launched me forward with the fo rce of a lit cannon. My body careened through the night air, and for a brief, weightless moment, I wondered if I was flying. Then the hard pavement of the alley between the Sutherlands and their neighbors home rushed up to greet me, and my bones cracked loudly on the impact.I groaned, pain radiating through my limbs as I turn over to my back, blood dripping down my face. I lay like that for hours, complete(a) at the stars until my Power healed me, resetting my bones and stitching up the piece in my cheek more swiftly than the most skilled medic could.But when I stood, a new pain shot through my chest. Because there on the brick wall of the Sutherlands home, written in red ink that could only be blood, were three terrifying wordsIm always watching.