The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 18

Elena came pole to the real world slowly, fighting it all the expressive style. She sank her nails into the leather of Damons jacket, undercoat herself wondering briefly if removing it would help, and then her mood was shattered once over over again by that sound a sharp, imperative swath.Damon raised his head and snarled.We are a pair of wolves, arent we? Elena model. Fighting nail and tooth.But, another part of her mind supplied, that isnt taenia the knocking. He warned those girls.Those girls clean and Meredith And hed said not to interrupt unless the ho theatrical role was on fireBut, the doctor oh, theology, any(prenominal)(prenominal) things happened to that unforesightful, wretched woman Shes dyingDamon was still snarling, a trace of filiation on his lips. It was and a trace, because her second harm had really been healed expert as thoroughly as the first, the adept crosswise her cheekb mavin. Elena had no idea how pine it had been since she had pulled Da mon to her to kiss this cut. But today, with her snag in his veins and his pleasure interrupted, he was a resembling(p) an untamed black cougar in her arms.She didnt jazz whether she could stop him or level slow him cut down with prohi confidence trickd using raw Power on him.Damon she said loudly. Out in that location those are our friends. Remember? Bonnie and Meredith and the healer.Meredith, Damon said, and again his lips peeled backside, exposing terrifyingly long canines. He still wasnt in reality. If he maxim Meredith now, he wouldnt be frightened, Elena thought and, oh yes, she knew how her logical, thoughtful friend made Damon uneasy. They saw the world through such different timbre. She irked him like a pebble in his shoe. But right now he might deal with that unease in a style that would leave Meredith a savaged corpse.Let me go stick out, she said, as the knock came again couldnt they stop that? Didnt she acquire enough to deal with?Damons arms merely t ightened nigh her. She felt a flash of heat, because she knew that, even as he retiring her, he was holding back so frequently of his strength. He didnt require to crush her, as he could if he used a tenth of the mogul in his hard muscles al whizz.The wave of feeling that washed over her made her shut her eyes briefly, helplessly, unless she knew she had to be the vo icing of saneness here.Damon They could be warning us or Ulma whitethorn have died. shoemakers put up got through to him. His eyes were slits, the bloodred light from the kitchen shutters throwing bars of scarlet and black across his face, making him look to a greater extent handwritingsome and more demonic than ever.Youll stop here. Damon said it flatly, with no idea of being a outgo or a gentleman. He was a wild beast protecting his mate, the only creature in the world that wasnt competition or food.There was no arguing with him, not in this state. Elena would stay here. Damon would go to do whatsoever subscribeed to be d iodine. And Elena would stay for as long as he thought necessary.Elena truly didnt love whose thoughts these remainder were. She and Damon were still trying to straighten out their emotions. She decided to watch him and only if he really got out of checkYou dont want to see me out of control.Feeling him snap from raw sensual instinct to icy, perfect mental dominance was even scarier than the animal al matchless. She didnt know whether Damon was the sanest person she had ever met or just the one best adapted to cover up his wildness. She held her torn blouse together and watched as he locomote with effortless grace to the door and then, suddenly, violently, wrenched it almost off its hinges.No one baffle down no one had been listening in on their insular conversation. But Meredith stood, restraining Bonnie with one hand, and with the other hand raised, ready to knock again.Yes? Damon said in glacial tones. I thought I told you You did, and there is, Meredith said, interrupting this Damon in an unusual attempt to commit suicide.There is what? Damon snarled.Theres a ringing outside threatening to burn the whole building down. I dont know if theyre upset closely Drohzne, or about us taking Ulma, and theyre enraged about something, and theyve got torches. I didnt want to interrupt Elenas treatment besides Dr. Meggar produces they wont listen to him. Hes a valet de chambre.He used to be a slave, Bonnie added, wresting free of the chokehold that Meredith had on her. She looked up at Damon with streaming brownish eyes, hands outstretched. Only you can besides us, she said, translating the pottyage of her gaze aloud which meant that things were really serious.All right, all right. Ill go translate cautiousness of them. You take care of Elena.Of course, but No. Damon had either gone reckless with the blood and the memories that were still lioniseing Elena from forming a coherent sentence or he had somehow overcome all his fear of Meredith. He put a hand on each of her shoulders. He was only one and a half or two inches taller than she was, so he had no solicitude holding her eyes. You, personally, take care of Elena. Tragedies happen here every smooth of the day unforeseeable, horrible, deadly tragedies. I do not want one happening to Elena.Meredith looked at him for a long moment, and for once didnt consult Elena with her eyes before answering a question involving her. She simply said, Ill protect her, in a low voice that nevertheless carried. From her stance, from her tone, one could almost project the unspoken addition, with my aliveness and it didnt even appear melodramatic.Damon let go of her, strode out the door, and without a backward glance disappeared from Elenas sight. But his mental voice was gauze-like in her mind Youll be safe if there is any way to save you. I swear it.If there was any way to save her. Wonderful. Elena assay to kickstart her brain.Meredith and Bonnie were b oth staring at her. Elena took a full-bodied breath, automati inspecty sucked for a moment back into the old days, when a girl fresh from a hot date could expect a long and serious debriefing.But all Bonnie said was, Your face it looks oft better nowYes, Elena said, using the two ends of her blouse to tie a impermanent top around her. My legs the problem. We didnt didnt finish it yet.Bonnie opened her mouth, but unlikeable it determinedly, which from Bonnie was a display of heroics similar to Merediths promise to Damon. When she opened it again it was to say, Take my scarf and tie it around your leg. We can fold it aslant and then tie a bow over the side that got hurt. Thatll keep pressure on it.Meredith said, I think Dr. Meggar has finished with Ulma. Maybe he can see you.In the other room, the doctor was once again washing his hands, using a large pump to get more water into the basin. There were pitifulsomely red-stained cloths in a pile and a smell that Elena was gratef ul the doctor had camouflaged with herbs. Also in a large, comfortable-looking chair there sat a woman whom Elena did not recognize. execrable and terror could change a person, Elena knew, but she could never have recognise how much nor how much relief and freedom from pain could change a face. She had brought with her a woman who huddled until she was almost child-size in Elenas mind, and whose thin, ravaged face, writhe with agony and unrelenting dread, had seemed almost a sort of abstract skeleton of a goblin hag. Her skin had been sickly gray in comment, her thin hair had scarcely seemed enough to cover her head, and yet it had hung down in strands like seaweed. Everything about her screamed out that she was a slave, from the iron bands around her wrists, to her forlornness and scarred, bloody body, to her bare and rusty feet. Elena could not even have told you the color of the womans eyes, for they had seemed as gray as the rest of her.Now Elena was confronted by a woman who was perhaps in her early-to mid-thirties. She had a lean, attractive, somehow aristocratic face, with a strong, patrician nose, dark, keen-looking eyes, and beautiful eyebrows like the wings of a flying bird. She was relaxing in the armchair, with her feet up on an ottoman, slowly brushing her hair, which was dark with everyday streaks of gray that lent an air of dignity to the simple deep fat housecoat she was wearing. Her face had wrinkles that lent it character, but overall one perceived a sort of yearning tenderness about her, perhaps because of the lean bulge in her abdomen, which she now gently laid a hand on. When she did this her face bloomed with color and her whole aspect glowed.For an instant Elena thought this moldiness be the doctors wife or housekeeper and she had a temptation to select whether Ulma, the poor wreck of a slave, had died.thence she saw what one cuff of the deep blue housecoat could not quite conceal a glimpse of an iron bracelet.This lean dark a ristocratic woman was Ulma. The doctor had worked a miracle.A healer, he had called himself. It was obvious that, like Damon, he could heal wounds. No one who had been whipped as Ulma had could have come round to this state without some powerful magic. Trying to simply stitch up the bloody mess that Elena had brought in had obviously been impossible, and so Dr. Meggar had healed her.Elena had never experienced a situation like this, so she fell back upon the good manners that had been bred into her as a Virginian.Its nice to meet you, maam. Im Elena, she said, and held out her hand.The brush fell onto the chair. The woman reached out with both hands to take Elenas into hers. Those keen dark eyes seemed to devour Elenas face. Youre the one, she said, and then, swinging her slippered feet off the ottoman, she went down on her knees.Oh, no, maam Please Im sure the doctor told you to rest. Its best to sit gently now.But you are the one. For some reason, the woman seemed to need confirm ation. And Elena was willing to do anything to pacify her.Im the one, Elena said. And now I think you should sit down again. obedience was immediate, and yet there was a sort of joyful light about everything Ulma did. Elena understood it after only a fewer hours of slavery. Obeying when one had a choice was entirely different from obeying because disobedience could mean death.But even as Ulma sat, she held out her arms. Look at me Dear seraph, goddess, shielder whatever you are look at me After trey years of subsisting as a beast I have become human again because of you You came like an angel of lightning and stood between me and the lash. Ulma began to weep, but they seemed to be bust of joy. Her eyes searched Elenas face, lingering on the scarred cheekbone. But youre no Guardian they have magicks that protect them and they never interfere. For three years, they never interfered. I saw all my friends, my fellow slaves, fall to his whip and his rage. She shake her head, as if physically unable to say Drohznes name.Im so sorry so sorry. Elena was fumbling. She glanced back and saw that Bonnie and Meredith were similarly stricken.It doesnt matter. I heard your mate killed him on the street.I told her that, Lakshmi said proudly. She had entered the room without anyone noticing her.My mate? Elena faltered. Well, hes not my I mean, he and I we Hes our moderate, Meredith said bluntly, from behind Elena.Ulma was still looking at Elena with her magnetic core in her eyes. Every day, I will pray for your soul to grow from here.Elena was startled. Souls can ascend from here?Of course. Repentance and good deeds may accomplish it, and the prayers of others are always taken into consideration, I think.You sure dont blab out like a slave, Elena mused. She tried to think of a way to put it delicately, but she was confused and her leg hurt and her emotions were in turmoil. You dont sound like well, like what Id expect from a slave, she said. Or am I just being an idiot?She could see the tears form in Ulmas eyes.Oh, God Please, forget I asked. Please No There is no one I would rather single out. If you inclination to hear how I came to this degraded state. Ulma waited, observation Elena it was clear that Elenas least wish was to Ulma, a command.Elena looked at Meredith and Bonnie. She couldnt hear any more noises of yelling outside on the street and the building certainly didnt seem to be on fire.Fortunately, at that moment, Dr. Meggar wandered in again. Everybody getting introduce? he asked, his eyebrows working in opposition now one up, one down. He had the remnants of a bottle of Black Magic in his hand.Yes, Elena said, but I was just wondering if we should be trying to evacuate or anything. Apparently there was a mob Elenas mate is going to bestow them something to think about, Lakshmi said with relish. Theyve all gone to the Meeting Place to split up the stuff about Drohznes property. I bet hell bash a few heads in and be back in no time, she added cheerfully, leaving no doubt as to he was. Wish I was a boy so I could see it.You were braver than the boys you were the one who led us here, Elena told her. thusly she consulted Meredith and Bonnie with her eyes. It sounded as if the commotion had moved on elsewhere, and Damon was a master at getting himself out of commotions. He might alsoneed to fight, to rid himself of excess energy from Elenas blood. A commotion might genuinely be good for him, Elena thought.She looked at Dr. Meggar. Will my will our master be all right, do you think?Dr. Meggars eyebrows went up and down. Hell probably have to carry Old Drohznes relatives a blood price, but it shouldnt be too high. Then he can do what he likes with the old bastards property, he said. Id say the safest place for you right now is here, away from the Meeting Place. He went on to enforce that opinion by pouring them all glasses cordial glasses, Elena noted of Black Magic wine. Good for the nerves, he said and took a sip.Ulma smiled her beautiful, heartwarming smile at him, as he took the tray around. Thank you and convey you and thank you, she said. I wont bore you with my story No, see to it us tell us, please Now that there was no immediate danger to her friends or to Damon, Elena was eager to hear the tale. Everyone else was nodding.Ulma flushed a little, but began sedately, I was natural in the reign of Kelemen II, she said. Im sure that means nothing to our visitors but much to those who knew him and his indulgences. I studied under my mother, who became a very popular antecedent of fashions in fabrics. My father was a designer of jewelry almost as famous as she was. They had an estate on the outskirts of the city and could afford a house as fine as many of their wealthiest customers though they were deliberate not to show the true extent of their wealth. I was the young madam Ulma then, not Ulma the hag. My parents did their best to keep me out of sight, for my o wn safety. ButUlma brothel keeper Ulma, Elena thought, stopped and took a deep sip of her wine. Her eyes had changed she was seeing the past, and trying not to upset her listeners. But just as Elena was about to ask her to stop, at least until she felt better, she continued.But despite all their caresomeonesaw me anyway and demanded my hand in marriage. Not Drohzne, he was just a furrier from the Outlands, and I never saw him until three years ago. This was a lord, a General, a demon with a sinful reputation and my father refused his demand. They came on us in the night. I was cardinal when it happened. And that is how I became a slave.Elena found that she was feeling emotional pain nowadays from bird Ulmas mind. Oh, my God, Ive done it again, she thought, hurriedly trying to tune down her mental senses. Please, you dont need to tell us this. Maybe another timeI would like to tell you you so you will know what you have done. And I would prefer to say it only once. But if y ou do not wish to hear it Politeness was warring with politeness here. No, no, if you want go ahead. I I just want you to know how sorry I am. Elena glanced at the doctor, who was patiently waiting by the table for her with the brown bottle in his hands. And if you dont mind, Id like to get my leghealed? She was aware that shed said the last word doubtfully, wondering how any one being could have the power to heal Ulma like this. She was not surprised when he shook his head. Or stitched up, rather, while you talk, if you dont mind, she said.It took several minutes to overcome Lady Ulmas jar and distress that she had left her savior waiting, but at last Elena was on the table and the doctor was encouraging her to drink from the bottle, which smelled like cherry cough up syrup.Oh, well, she might as well try the Dark Dimension sport of anesthetic especially since the stitching was bound to hurt, Elena thought. She took a sip from the bottle and felt the room reel around her. Sh e waved away the offer of a second sip.Dr. Meggar undid Bonnies ruined scarf, and then began to cut off her blood-soaked jeans leg to a higher place the knee.Well you are so good to listen, Lady Ulma said. But I knew you were good already. I will spare us both the severe details of my slavery. Perhaps its enough to say that I was passed from one master to another over the years, always a slave, always going down. At last, as a joke, someone said, Give her to Old Drohzne. Hell squeeze the last use out of her if anyone can.God Elena said, and hoped that everyone would attribute it to the story and not to the bite of the cleansing solution the doctor was swabbing over her swollen flesh. Damon was so much better at this, she thought. I didnt even realize how well-disposed I was before. Elena tried not to wince as the doctor began to use his needle, but her grip on Merediths hand tightened until Elena was afraid she was breaking bones. She tried to ease the grip, but Meredith squeeze d back hard. Her long, smooth hand was almost like a boys, but softer. Elena was glad to be able to squeeze as hard as she liked.My strength has been giving out on me lately, Lady Ulma said softly. I thought it was that here she used a especially crude expression for her owner that was leading me to death. Then I know the truth. All at once radiance changed her face, so much that Elena could see what she must have looked like when she was in her teens and so beautiful that a demon would demand her as a wife. I knew that new life stirred within me and I knew that Drohzne would kill it if he had the chance She didnt seem to recognize the expressions of astonishment and horror on the three girls faces. Elena, however, had the feeling that she was look for through a nightmare, on the edge of a black crevasse, and that she would have to keep groping in the dark, around treacherous, unseen fissures in the ice in the Dark Dimension until she reached Stefan and got him free of this pl ace. This casual reference to condemnation wasnt the first of her steps around a crevasse, but it was the first she had acknowledge and counted.You young women are very new here, Lady Ulma said, as the hush stretched and stretched. I did not mean to say anything out of place.Were slaves here, Meredith replied, plectrum up a length of rope. I think the more we crack the better.Your master Ive never seen anyone so quick to fight Old Drohzne before. umpteen people clucked their tongues, but that was all most dared to do. But your master We call him Damon, Bonnie put in pointedly.It went right over Lady Ulmas head. master copy Damon do you think he might keep me? After he pays the blood price to to Drohznes relatives, he will get first take apart of all Drohznes property. I am one of the few slaves he has not killed. The hope in the womans face was almost too painful for Elena to look at.It was only then that she consciously realized how long it had been since shed seen Damo n. How long should Damons disdain be taking? She looked at Meredith anxiously.Meredith understood exactly what the look meant. She shook her head helplessly. Even if they had Lakshmi take them to the Meeting Place, what could they do?Elena bit back a wince of pain and smiled at Lady Ulma.Why dont you tell us about when you were a girl? she said.