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But instead I felt a stake plunge into my heart. My eyes fluttered open, and there stood my brother, laughing as he dug the wood yet deeper into me, the flower petals crushed beneath my prone form.
My head lolled to the side, and my eyes snagged on the girl who was bleeding to death next to me on the grass. Her hair was fire-red, and her skin was moon-pale beneath her freckles.
Callie!I tried to shout. But Damon snatched up my words in his fist before sinking a knife over and over into Callies back.
"Stefan!" a voice called again, louder this time. I recognized the lilting alto. Lexi.
"Nooo " I moaned. I couldnt allow Damon to kill her, too. "Go away!"
"Stefan . " She came closer still, kneeling down beside me, holding a goblet to my lips.
"No," I said again.
She shook my shoulders violently. My eyes popped open. The walls around me were painted with cracked red paint, and I saw a gilt-edged portrait on the opposite wall. I sat up, touching my face with my hands, then glancing down. I was still wearing my ring. I touched the stone. It felt very real.
"Lexi?" I asked thickly.
"Yes!" She smiled, clearly relieved. "Youre awake. "
I glanced down at my body. My arm still throbbed, and there was dried blood underneath my fingernails. "Am I alive?"
She nodded. "Just barely. " "Damon?"
"We didnt get him," Lexi said darkly. "He ran off. "
"Callie?" I asked. I didnt want to hear, but I needed to know.
Lexi looked down at her fingernails for a long moment, then lifted her amber eyes to mine. "Im sorry, Stefan. We tried Even Buxton tried to save her "
"But she was too far gone," I finished for her. My head throbbed. "Where is she now?"
Lexi pushed my matted hair off my temple. Her fingers were cool against my burning skin. "In the river. The whole citys looking for her " Lexis voice trailed off, but I understood everything that she wasnt saying.
"Before you rest, you need to drink," Lexi murmured, helping me sit up again. "Its your favorite, goats blood," she said with a sad smile.
I put my lips to the goblet. The brackish liquid tasted nothing like sweet, full-bodied human blood, but it was warm. And it contained something human blood never would: a dull spark of redemption. The more of this I drank, the less human blood would run through me.
I wasnt na?ve, though. Guilt would always flow through my veins. Id killed too many in my short time as a vampire, destroyed too many lives. Whether or not I drank from her, Callies death was on my hands as well. I should have turned my back on her, told her I never wanted to see her. But Id been weak.
"Good boy," Lexi murmured as I finished drinking from the cup.
I didnt feel good. I felt sick and scared and unsure of what to do. Damon was still out in the world, somewhere, and Callies blood was running through his veins. My stomach tightened.
"I dont know what to do," I admitted, searching Lexis eyes for answers. But Lexi was silent.
"I dont know what to tell you," she said finally. "But I do know youre a good man. "
I sighed, ready to point out that I wasnt a man at all, I was a monster. But Lexi stood up and gathered the mugs from the night table.
Chapter 33
When I woke up, I could tell from the light streaming through the crack in the curtains that it was daylight. I swung my feet onto the hardwood floor and grabbed the neat pile of clothes from the shopping trip with Lexi. It seemed like a lifetime ago.
I put on a new shirt, slicked my hair back, and put the rest of the clothes in a makeshift carrying case formed from my tattered shirt from Mystic Falls--the only item I still had from my old life.
I glanced around the room, my eyes taking in the familiar layers of dust in the corners. I wondered how many vampires had passed through this house and whether Lexi would find another young vampire to take under her wing. I hoped, for his sake as well as hers, that hed have a better time in this city of sin than I had had.
Lexi was sitting in the living room. In her hands was the portrait of her brother. As soon as I stepped in, she glanced up.
