Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 23

We hailed a carriage heading uptown Lexi told me I needed to celebrate my strength for whatever came next and got out without bothering to pay. This was what life was bid for one and only(a) such as Lexi, powerful and simple in her wants and desires. She didnt need some(prenominal) intricate, crazy plans for amassing wealth. She could compel anyone to do anything she asked, and life was incredibly easy.It was tempting, especi all told(prenominal)y the facial expression that was nonviolent. No one was hurt in any of her activities, except financially.Lexi mustiness have read my thoughts because she grinned at me and waggled her eyebrows. You should stick with me, my friend. Life like this stick out be sweet, not a curse, she offered.I shook my head, smiling. Thanks, but as you keep saying, I have my own path.By the time we make it to the Sutherland mansion, its windows were dark and already draped in festoons of gloomy crepe. In the peculiar half-light of the early hour, dew sparkled eerily off the matte cloth. The house was cordoned off.I thinly forced the lock. Neither Lexi nor I do any noise until we came into the hold room, when she gave a gasp.The coroners had removed the bodies but not done any cleansing work. The vast amounts of countercurrent from their ripped-up bodies had seeped into the carpet and stained the marble floors beneath. Dark black splatters of dried blood covered the walls, matching the crepe outside.My god, Lexi whispered. He massacred them.I fell back into a chair, overwhelmed with guilt. It hadnt been long since I had discovered the unworthy family hither, their bodies still warm with rapidly fleeting life. Backward and backward my thoughts ran, recall the things I had done wrong, all of which had led up to this sad climax.If I hadnt run away from the receptionIf hadnt gone along with my brothers plans to begin withIf I hadnt saved Brid baffleIf I hadnt fled to New YorkIf I hadnt make Damon drink blood to complete his transformationThis is my fault, I moaned.I put my head in my hands. The trail of blood and death that wasnt even of my own devising followed me like a curse.No, its Damons, Lexi corrected promptly. And Klauss.I should never have come here. I should have stayed as far away from humans as possible.Hey. Lexi walked over to me, kneeling down and looking up into my face. She put a hand on my chin, forcing me to look back at her. You didnt do this. Klaus did he ordered this. And you had no intention of marrying into this family. That was Damons idea. You told me yourself he threatened to kill that roomful of plenty if you didnt go along. I would have killed him at that point, but hes not my brother.I gazed into her dark eyeball. Ive done so much wrong.She bit her lower lip. You made mistakes in the past. Bad ones. But you recognize that, and were doing your best to correct them, or at least avoid them in the future. Thats why I am here, Stefan. Youre worth saving.A pain that had not hing to do with thirst made my throat ache. Lexi, pleaseI can see into your pump, Stefan, she said softly. I dont in force(p) appear out of the blue to save any vampire. Youre different. And someday, maybe, youll know that. And part of your curse will be over.She leaned forward and pressed her lips against my cheek. I could feel the soft flutter of her eyelashes as she closed her eyes against my face. decrease on, she said, backing up and chucking me under the chin. We have work to do. Ill look nearly down here. You go get whatever things of yours the police havent confiscated. I ring youre moving out of this town for a while.Between one schnorkel and the next, between a trick of the light and the deepest shadow, she had changed. Sunny, friendly Lexi now had bloodred eyes and black veins around her face. Fangs glistened in what little light there was. She was in full predator mode, hunting for the slightest sign of the vampire. Even though she was just an older version of what I was, seeing her that way still direct a chill down my body. Lurking just beneath our skin, the monster was of all time ready to come out.With a heavy heart I plodded up the grand, dark timberland staircase. There was no need to be completely silent the few servants who remained were in their quarters in a contrary wing, far away from the death and mess. I could hear their overloud voices, their discussions of prospects and other households all desperate attempts to fend off the darkness that their employers had slipped into so suddenly.I wondered what Margaret was doing, vowing to get word to her about Klaus and his vendetta. She was probably in her own home with her husband, mourn her sisters and parents. Which was harder? To be dead, or to live with the memory of the dead? As a vampire, I would never know the former, but always experience the latter.I soon reached my room, where a night ago Bridget had thrown herself at me. I smelled traces of the violet perfume she had do used herself with. It had infiltrated my pillow and sheets. So much more boyish than Katherines scent, the subtle, alluring, complicated mix of citrus and spice.I took a valise some other gift from Winfield, planning for our honeymoon, I suppose and threw the few things I considered tap into it. My old clothes, some spare change, my journal. I flipped to an old page where Id create verbally about Katherine.September 8, 1864She is not who she seems. Should I be surprised? frightened? Hurt?Its as if everything I know, everything Ive been taught, everything Ive believed in my past seventeen days is wrong.I can still feel where she kissed me, where her fingers grasped my hands. I still hanker for her, and yet the voice of reason is screaming in my ears you cannot love a vampireIf I had one of her daisies, I could pluck the leaves and let the height choose for me. I love her I love her not II love her.I do. No matter the consequences.Is this what following your heart is? I wish there was a map or a compass to help me find my way. But she has my heart and that above all else is my North Star and that will have to be enough.I snapped the intensity shut, curling my lip at my foolishness. Downstairs was the present reality and idea about the past did no good. I threw the book into the valise and went downstairs.But or else of finding Lexi there to greet me, there was emptiness and a horrible, long-familiar scent.Death and decay.A faint breeze whistled through broken wood the back door was left wide open. I shivered despite myself. The silence, Lexis absence, howled like a banshee.A single piece of paper, the size of a ticket, fluttered on the floor. I picked it up, feeling dread prickle my skin.All it said was requital NUMBER TWO LUCIUS.