"Terrific," said Aunt Judith. "Thank you. Wel , if you are al the way up at Hot Springs, you'd better start heading home soon."
"Okay, Aunt Judith," Elena said. "I'l get going now."
They said good-bye, and Elena hung up and started gathering her things together. "Stefan, can I take your car?"
she asked. "I need to get to Margaret's dance recital. You can give him a ride back, right, Matt? I'l cal you guys later and we'l work on figuring this out."
Stefan got to his feet. "I'l come with you."
"What?" said Elena. "No, you need to stay with Celia and get to the hospital to take care of Meredith, too."
Stefan took her arm. "Don't go, then. You shouldn't be alone now. None of us are safe. There's something out there hunting us, and we need to al stick together. If we don't let each other out of our sight, then we can al protect one another."
His leaf green eyes were clear and ful of anxiety and love, and Elena felt a pang of regret as she tugged her arm gently out of his grasp. "I need to go," she said quietly. "If I spend al my time being scared and hiding, then the Guardians might as wel have let me stay dead. I need to be with my family and live as normal a life as I can."
She kissed him gently, lingering for a moment against the softness of his lips. "And you know they haven't targeted me yet," she said. "Nothing's spel ed out my name. But I promise I'l be careful."
Stefan's eyes were hard. "What about what Bonnie said?" he argued. "That he wants you? What if that means Caleb? He's hanging around at your house, Elena! He could come after you at any time!"
"Wel , I'm not going to be there. I'l be at a dance recital with my family beside me," Elena pointed out. "Nothing wil happen to me today. It's not my turn yet, is it?"
"Elena, don't be stupid!" Stefan snapped. "You're in danger."
Elena bristled. Stupid? Stefan, no matter how stressed or anxious, had never treated her with less than total respect. "Excuse me?"
Stefan reached for her. "Elena," he said. "Let me come with you. I'l stay with you until nightfal and then keep watch outside your house tonight."
"It's real y not necessary," Elena said. "Protect Meredith and Celia instead. They're the ones who need you."
Stefan's face fel , and he looked so devastated that she relented a little, adding, "Please don't worry, Stefan. I'l be careful, and I'l see you al tomorrow."
His jaw clenched, but he said nothing more, and she turned to make her way down the trail, not looking back. Once they were back at the boardinghouse, Stefan couldn't relax.
He couldn't remember ever, in al his long life, feeling so edgy and uncomfortable in his own body. He itched and ached with anxiety. It was as if his skin were fitted too tightly over his bones, and he moved irritably, tapping his fingers against the table, cracking his neck, shrugging his shoulders, shifting back and forth in his chair. He wants you, Elena. What the hel did that mean? He wants you.
And the sight of that dark, hulking figure up on the cliff, a shadow blotting out the sun, those golden curls shining like a halo above the figure's head...
Stefan knew he should be with Elena. Al he wanted to do was to protect her.
But she had dismissed him, had - metaphorical y, at least - patted him on the head and told him to stay, faithful guard dog that he was, and watch over someone else. To keep someone else safe. No matter that she was clearly in danger, that someone - some he - wanted her. Stil she didn't want Stefan to be with her right now. What did Elena want? Now that Stefan stopped to think about it, it seemed that Elena wanted a host of incompatible things. To have Stefan as her loyal knight. Which he would always, always be, he asserted to himself, clenching his fist tightly.
But she also wanted to hold on to the memories of Damon, and to keep that part of her she had shared with him private and pristine, separate from everyone else, even from Stefan.
And she wanted so much more, too: to be the savior of her friends, of her town, of her world. To be loved and admired. To be in control.
And to be a normal girl again. Wel , that normal life she had lived had been destroyed forever when she met Stefan, when he made the choice to let her into his world. He knew it was his fault, al of it, everything that fol owed after that, but he couldn't be sorry that she was with him now. He loved her too much to have any room for regret. She was the center of his world, but at the same time, he knew it wasn't the same for her.
A hole inside him gaped with longing, and he moved restlessly in his chair. His canine teeth lengthened in his mouth. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt so... wrong. He couldn't get the image of Caleb out of his head, looking down at them from the top of the cliff, as if checking to see whether whatever violence he'd hoped to cause had come to pass.
"More tea, Stefan?" Mrs. Flowers asked him softly, breaking into his furious thoughts. She was leaning forward over a little table with the teapot, her wide blue eyes watching him from behind her glasses. Her face was so compassionate that he wondered what she could see in him. This elderly, wise woman always seemed to perceive so much more than anyone else; perhaps she could tel how he was feeling now.
He realized she was stil waiting politely for his answer, the teapot suspended in one hand, and he nodded automatical y. "Thank you, Mrs. Flowers," he said, offering forth his cup, which was stil half-ful of cold tea. He didn't real y like the taste of normal human drinks; he hadn't for a long time now, but sometimes drinking them made him fit in, made the others relax a bit more around him. When he didn't eat or drink at al , he could sense Elena's friends prickling, the hairs on the back of their necks rising, as some subconscious voice in them noted that he was not like them, adding it to al the other little differences he couldn't control, and thereby concluding he was wrong.