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“Sstefan?”
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Dearheart. Bonniedearheart, he qualified, as if to show that he knew her.
Stefandearheart . . .
How can I ever thank you enough? Bonnie, I’ll go to my death happily tonight. I can never make it up to you, but I can certify that you’re already an angel.
I made you happy, then.
Can you have any doubt? This is what it can be when two . . . well, I won’t say lovers because we aren’t, not in the conventional sense. But this is what it can be when there’s no fear, only love.
And—you don’t think I’m just a little girl?
If I’d thought that you’d never have gotten your sweater off. You’re a woman, even if you’re still a girl. Some girls are. And some women of fifty are still girls.
She sighed and lapsed back. “I’m glad,” she whispered. “And you be sure that Damon knows it, too.”
What does Damon have to do—he began and then sensed something more urgent. He felt wonderful, yes, but when he calculated how much of her blood he had taken he nearly panicked.
“Bonnie?”
Let’s not talk just now, Stefan.
Bonnie, my titianhaired angel, we have to. I’ve done something awful. I took far too much of your blood. It can make you seriously ill, and there’s only one thing I can do to help you—if you consider it help.
There was a sluggish response.
He shook her. Bonnie, Bonnie dearest, don’t go to sleep!
Stefan kissed her on the mouth, hard, hoping that indignation or some other emotion would wake her. But Bonnie’s lips were soft and warm—and parted—under his.
Oh, no—not now. He had to wake her up—
Or maybe not.
Maybe it would be easier while she was still halfasleep. Stefan used the fastest means of opening one of his own veins; a stillrazor sharp canine drawn up his forearm.
Blood trickled from the wrist and he held it to Bonnie’s lips while her eyes were closed.
Bonnie swallowed, and then her hands came up like a baby’s and she held his arm herself, drinking the only remedy Stefan knew for what he’d done, other than a fullscale human hospital’s transfusion.
Bonnie swallowed again, greedily. Stefan, in trying to calculate how much she needed, realized he had perhaps panicked unnecessarily. He hadn’t taken enough to really put her in danger. And Bonnie didn’t need all that much.
Her blue eyes opened, then opened wide. There was surprise in them, but not—
thanks to any gods that were—revulsion. After another moment he began the gentle struggle to get his wrist back. Elena had described to him once what vampire blood did to humans after their first prejudice had been overcome, and he was able to understand why it was a struggle to get his arm back from Bonnie. But she was no match for his strength. He stopped the bleeding with a thought and turned back to her.
Bonnie? I’m so sorry that was necessary. I took too much—I think. I’m pretty sure. I’m a little confused right now—
Don’t worry about it, Bonnie answered simply, and he was astounded to hear triumph in her voice. If you did, well, then I win.
You win? Win what?
A bet I made with myself. Sanctioned by Elena—I think. I bet myself that I could make you forget—just for tonight. Since it may be the last night. Damon told me I was a baby—
“So I became a bet between Damon and you?”
