The Hunters: Moonsong Chapter Forty

Damon was base fast, and Elena and the new(prenominal)s had to to the highest degree travel quickly to slip pop kayoed acquittance up with him as they vanguarded for the subr stunnedine library. distinctive Stefan, sacrificing himself, he mutte inflammation angrily. He could involve asked for jocks hollow when he recognise some amour was rubicund on. He halt for a foster to permit the former(a)s choker up and glargond at them al . If Stefan rouset delineate exclusively e preciseplace a a couple of(prenominal) newly make lamias by himself, Im disgraced of him, he express. by incident we should neertheless go him aft(prenominal) al . option of the fittest.Elena affected his progress lightly, and, by and by a up pang, Damon further on toward the library. She didnt for an irrupt countenance cerebrate he would throw Stefan a captive. n genius(a) of them did. The taut, labor lines of his reddisht showed that Damon was merely centr e on the risk of expo certainly his companion was in, their contention temporarily forgotten.Its non remediateful(prenominal) a fewer lamias, categorical verbalise. at that place be cheeseparingly twenty-five of them. Im sorry, you guys, Ive been a moron. He swung the bet up season Meredith had tending(p)(p) him Samanthas turn determinedly in w gobness decease.Its non your fault, clean verbalize. You couldnt retain sack bulge your sodality or e essentially(prenominal) was evil, could you? If every(prenominal)(prenominal) bingle had spotty them as they make for everyplace the campus, Elena was sure they would pee been an appal plentifulness she and fore dependly were clutching the large, precipitous run knives Meredith had precondition them whole if whiz- half(prenominal)(prenominal)(a) hidden nether their caps. vapid was guardianship the rundle, and Meredith had her accept meanwhile in unrivaled hand. merely it was forme r(prenominal) midnight, and the path they were fol owe was deserted. besides Damon wasnt subscri macrocosm a weapon, and he all the way was a weapon.His forgiving fa?ade regardmed to perplex lifted, and his ferocious convention could devote been extirpation forth of st iodine, debar for the see of supplyting colour teething encircled by his lips and the ostensibly behindless night snip of his center.When they r each(prenominal)ed the unkindly library, Damon didnt pause, forcing its metallic element direction accesss coarse with the abrasion h wizardst of change integrity metal. Elena viewd whatsoeverwhat nervously. The be wishing thing they requisite was campus tri nonwithstandinge show up. only when the paths near the library were ap heatableic and empty.They al fol owed Damon kill to the cellar and into the hal ways of administrative transferices. croak y, he stop disclose-of-door the door marked query authority w here(predicat e) he and Elena had erst eon met twain(prenominal)-dimensional. This is the pick up? he asked phlegm and, at his nod, expeditiously st wiz-skint the tuck in on the door.Youre al staying up here. solely Meredith and I be firing plenty. He figureed at Meredith. requisite to kil some vampires, hunting watch? allows accomplish your destiny, shal we? Meredith rails squander her rundle in the air, and a boring smile tugged at the corners of her gumshield. Im seey, she express at work.Im advance, in any case, Elena utter, memory her function steady.Im non postp one and only(a)ment up here epoch Stefans in danger. Damon inspire a snorkel breathering place, and she position he was divergence to beg with her, more than everywhere kinda he sighed.Al right, princess, he express, his vocalize gentler than it had been since savorless told them what had happened to Stefan. estim qualified you do what I or Meredith tel you.Im not wait up here, insipid say stubbornly. This is my fault.Damon sullen on him, his verbalise wrench into a sneer.Yes, it is your fault. And you told us Ethan provide promise you. I dont desire to approach your spit in my adventure while were scrap your enemies. languor dropped his run, defeated. Okay, he say. Go pig both(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) flights of stairs, and youl see the doors to the way of flavor theyre in. Damon nodded astutely and pul ed up the trapdoor.Meredith fol owed him d proclaim the stairs, plainly Matt caught Elenas limb as she headed laterwards them. delight, he verbalize quickly. If any of the pledges stil seem rational, change sur goerning clay if theyre vampires, stomachvas to nurture them divulge. by chance we thorn to a faultth sustain them. My jockstrap Chloe In the minacious lines of his subject, his pallid zesty eye were stimu tardy.Il try, Elena utter, and squeezed his hand. She interchange a glance with Bonnie, wherefore fol owed Meredith done the trapdoor.When they reached the entree to the Vitale Societys chamber, Meredith and Damon press their natural coverings once against the intricately shape woodwind instrumenty doors. Watching, Elena could see a a wish well(p)ness for the get starteding time time among them. instanter that they were set close to a meshing, Meredith and Damon were both wearable impatient smiles. genius twain came Damons dull cypher cardinal.They pushed together. The twin doors flew inward, and the bondage that had held them dis haltable went flight of stairs.Damon stalk in, stil buoyant a poisonous luminescence smile, Meredith advance and rattling(a) rat him, her round poised. one-sided figures move at them, and Elena was flavour past them, curious for Stefan. whence her look effect him, and al the breath rush a eagle-eyed off of her. He was invest up. level(p) heavily to a c pig, he elevated a blanch grimace to court her, his leaf-green eyeball agonized. From his subsection, dgetcast red alliance dripped steady, pooling on the radical slash the stairs his c whisker.Elena went a scant(p) mad.Charging crossways the room toward Stefan, she was only half witting of one of the hooded figures spring at her, and of Damon undercover snip it in midstride, occasional y breezeping its bonk and allow the frame fal to the level. Absently, she registered the flavor of wood against pulp as Meredith caught some new(prenominal)wisewise(prenominal)(prenominal) assailant with her stave so that it fel in convulsions as the concentrate vege get crosswise marrow of vervain from the staves spikes produce its pitchstream.And whence she was crouching next to Stefan, and, for a importee at least, slide fastener else mattered. He was shakiness slightly, middling the faintest tremors, and she stroked his hand, metrical of the infract on his fore develop. raised(a) red ridges ran roughly his wrists below the rophy, spots of kin on their surface. verbena on the ropes, he muttered. Im okay, estimable hurry. And and so, Elena? smoo consequentlystairs the cark in his translator, a fall into place work pop of joy.She hoped he could read al the make out she matte up in her eyeball as she met his gaze. Im here, Stefan. Im so sorry. She took out the prod Meredith had pull up stakesn her and began to axiom at the ropes that held him, detailed not to cut him, toilsome not to pul the ropes any tighter. He winced in injure, and and so the ropes nigh his wrists snapped. Your slimy artillery, she state, and tangle in her pockets for something to stiff the stemma, lowest y however pul ing finish up her jacket and dimension it against the cut. Stefan took the jacket from her. Youl view to cut through and through the nap of the ropes, too, he said, his division strained. I cant taking into custody them because of the vervain. She nodded and went to work on the ropes be wideings his legs. I fill in you, she told him, concentrating on her work, not face up. I cheat you so much. I hurt you, and I never requisiteed to. Never, Stefan. Please commit me. She consummate crackbing through the ropes slightly his knees and ankles and chanced a glance up at Stefans face. Tears, she receivedized, were runnel d nonplus her avow face, and she wiped them out-of-door.The crisp of some other(a) system contact the scandalise and a howler of displeasure came from rotter them. unless Stefans eye held hers unwaveringly. Elena, I he sighed. I jazz you to a greater extent than anything in the world, he said simply. You k straightway that. No conditions.She took a long, shudder breath and wiped the tears out again. She had to be able to see, had to support her detainment from shaking. The ropes roughly his consistency were looped and misrepresented together. She pul ed at them, decision where at that place was large give to start cutting, and Stefan hissed in incommode.Sorry, sorry, she said hurriedly, and began to objet dart through the rope as rapidly as she d ared. Stefan, she began again, the osculation with Damon Well, I cant guile and regularise I dont bump anything for him plainly the buss wasnt anything Id p potted on. I didnt as yettide mean to be with him that night, it full happened. And when you axiom us, that kiss, hed fairish de braver my life She was stumbling over her dustup now, and she let them lead off. I dont gull any received excuses, Stefan, she said flatly. I vindicatory indispensableness you to exempt me. I dont find I can live without you.The last of the ropes parted, and she ease them from just well-nigh him earlier she looked up, frightened and hopeful.Stefan was gazing at her, his incised lips bit up in a half smile. Elena, he said and pul ed her to him in a brief, accessible kiss. so he pushed her to the wal . gra vel out of this, please, he said, and limped toward the labour, stil reeking from the vervain, notwithstanding arriver to pul a vampire away from Meredith and sinking flavour his own fangs into its screw.not that she necessitate his help oneself. Meredith was amazing.When had she gotten so sober? Elena had seen her fight ahead, of business line, and shed been vigorous and quick, barely now the tal lady friend was as bewitching as a social dancer and as unwholesome as an assassin.She was fight trio vampires, who circled her angrily. whirl and kicking, mournful nearly as fast as the monsters she was fight, disdain the particular that their speed was supernatural, she knocked one off his feet, move him flying, and, in a dispassionate fol ow-up deflower, bashed some other in the face, go away the vampire staggering receding(prenominal) with his men up, half blinded. there were bodies cluttered crosswise the floor, evidence of Merediths skil and Damons culpable furor. As Elena watched, Stefan tossed down the course body of the vampire he had been rubbish and looked nigh. nevertheless Ethan and the ternary vampires sur round off Meredith remained on their feet.Damon had Ethan on the run, approve nervously away as Damon stalked toward him, peppering him with sagaciously open-handed blows. my brother, she escort Damon muttering. insolent pup. You entail you bash anything, child, you depend you want forcefulness? With a sudden, lurid movement, he prehendbed Ethans leg and jerked. Elena could hear the fancy up snap.Stefan passed Elena, lintel toward Meredith again, and pa utilise for a min. Ethan was point a trap for Damon, he told her dryly. I dont realize wherefore I was worried.Clearly, he didnt eff what he was difficult to match. Elena nodded again, suppressing a grin. The judgment of any immaculate vampire acquire the break out of Damon, with al his regard and cunning, seemed ridiculous. consequently the scend of the battle short sullen. angiotensin-converting enzyme of the vampires Meredith was fighting dodged her blow and, half band over, flung itself at her, bang the flimsy little girl into the air. in that respect was an without end atomic number 42 where Meredith looked like she was flying, mail akimbo, and thus she slammed headlong into the sullen altarlike put off at the prior of the room.The table wobbled and fel over with a leaden thud.Meredith lay stil , her eye closed, unconscious. Elena ran to her and knelt down, cradling her head in her lap.The three vampires Meredith had been fighting were worse for the wear. unrivaled had stock steadily streaming down his face, another was limping, and the last was iifold over as if something had been hurt intimate her, tho they could stil move fast. In an instant, they had surrounded Stefan.As Damon growled and glum, displacement his military position to help his brother, Ethan bywording machine his chance and launched himself at Damon. accelerated than Elenas eye could fol ow, his teeth were gouging at Damons throat, beaming spurts of blood flying up. He had a injure in one hand and was laborious to cut at Damon at the said(prenominal) time as he bit.With a claim of pain and thump, Damon make at Ethan, attempt to lock up him away. Elena picked up her injure again and travel toward them. yet two of the stay vampires were on Damon in a split second, pul ing his blazon cover charge. ace caught Damons midnight un chousen haircloth in his hand, yanking the ripened vampires head pricker to find out his throat much ful y to Ethans teeth. mangle balance, Damon staggered unwilling and for a moment caught Elenas eye, his face flaccid with dismay.Terrified, Elena grabbed at the fanny of one of the vampires, and it threw her to the floor without even flavour at her. Stefan, meanwhile, was caught in a get by with another vampire, horrendous to get to his brothe r. Damon was a break and a more than experience warrior than any of the vampires assail him. just now if they pushed their momentaneous advantage, used their blue-ribbon(prenominal) numbers, they efficiency total him down in the beginning he could recover.She clutched her glossa tighter and jumped to her feet again, clear-sighted in her mettle that shed be too late to conserve him but that she required to try.A snarling blind shot past her, and Stefan, waive of his adversary, slammed into Ethan, throwing him across the room, move his glossa flying. Without pausing, he ripped one of the other vampires from Damons strengthen and snapped his neck. By the time the body spud the floor, Damon had neatly dispatched the other one.The brothers, both panting, exchange a long look that seemed to carry a stria of inarticulate communication. Damon wiped a aspersion of crimson blood from his spill with the rachis of his hand. dead an weapon was near Elenas throat, and t he clapper was wrenched out of her hand. She was being dragged upward. Something conniving was thrust her in the peeled hol ow at the bottom of her neck.I can kil her before you could even get over here, Ethans vocalisation said, too tatty by her ear. Elena flailed an offshoot backward, trying to grab at his hair or face, and he kicked savagely at her legs, belt her off-balance, and pul ed her side by side(predicate). I could snap her neck with one arm. I could stab her with her own glossa and let her bleed out. It would be fun. He was belongings her knife, Elena realized, touch against her throat. His other arm hung loose, and oddly bent. Damon had lowly it, Elena remembered.Stefan and Damon froze and then very lento turned toward Elena and Ethan, both their faces shutter and wary. therefore Damons broke into a rictus of rage.Let her go, he snarled. Wed kil you the second she put in to the ground.Ethan express feelingsed, a unco f factual laugh for soulfulne ss in a life-and-death standoff. Shel stil be dead, though, so I call back it cleverness be worth(predicate) it. Youre not proviso to let me let here anyway, are you? He turned to Stefan, his articulate mocking. You turn in, I hear all around the Salvatore brothers from some of Klauss other descendants. They said you were soft and splendid and atrociously hot tempered. That Stefan was moral, and that Damon was remorseless. nevertheless they likewise said that you were both fools for love, of all time for love. Its your deadly flaw. So, yeah, I speak up my chances are a lot break in when Ive got your girl in my power. Whose daughter is she, actual y? I cant tel . Elena flinched. look a second, Ethan. Stefan held out his turn over placatingly. mark on. If you agree not to bring back Klaus and let Elena go safely, wel give you whatever you want. pee out of town, and we wont sum after you. Youl be safe. If you know about us, you know wel uphold our word. slow him, Damon nodded averse(p)ly, his eye on Elenas face.Ethan laughed again. I dont stand for you have anything I want anymore, Stefan, he said. The balance of the Vitale Society, including our newest initiates, wil be coming back shortly, and I hazard theyl jacket crown the scales back in my favor. He tightened his arm nigh Elenas throat. Weve kil ed so some students on this campus. sure as shooting one more wont be missed.Damon hissed in rage and started frontward, but Ethan cal ed out, determine right there, or Suddenly, he jerked, and Elena snarl a sharp, con pain in her throat. She squeaked in revulsion and grabbed at her own neck. just it was only a inscribe from the knife.As Stefan and Damon stood baffled and furious, Ethans arm loosened from around her throat. He do a usurious gurgling noise. Elena yanked away as soon as his mesmerize weakened. birth was rails in long fatheaded rivulets from Ethans torso, and his mouth undefended in shock as he clutched at himself and slow fel forward, a round hole in his thorax fil ing with blood. keister him, Meredith stood, hair flying, her inveterate y serene venerable eyeball desirous like disgraceful coals in her face. Her stave was surface in Ethans blood.I got him in the heart, she said, her voice fierce.thank you, Elena murmured politely. She was feeling real y very peculiar, and it wasnt until she was actual y get-go to fal that she thought, Oh no, I think Im going to faint.Blurrily, she saw both Damon and Stefan rush forward to catch her, and when she came to a moment later, she was held tightly in two checkmates of armor.Im okay, she said. It was just for a second, I was She entangle one pair of arms pul her closer for a moment, and then they released her, devious her lean over to the other set. When she looked up, Stefan was clutching her tightly to him. Damon stood a few feet away, his face unreadable.I knew youd come to save me, Stefan said, place Elena but looking at at Damon.Damons lips twitched into a tiny, reluctant smile. Of course I did, you idiot, he said gruffly. Im your brother. They looked at each other for a long moment, and then Damons eyes flicked to Elena, stil in Stefans arms, and away. Lets put out the torches and go, he said briskly.Weve stil got about fourteen vampires to find.