The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall Read Online Free

sentence, but no good ones. “What a pity,” he said instead to the short, slim, and compact Damon, “that you’ll never grow another millimeter taller however long you live. And now, why don’t you tell me what you’re doing here, after leaving so many messes in town for me to clean up—if I know you.”
    “I’m here because I want my leather jacket back,” Damon said flatly.
    “Why not just steal anoth—?” Stefan broke off as he suddenly found himself flying briefly backward and then pinned against the groaning boards of the boardinghouse wall, with Damon right in his face.
    “I didn’t steal these things, boy . I paid for them—in my own coin. Dreams, fantasies, and pleasure from beyond this world.” Damon said the last words with emphasis, since he knew they would infuriate Stefan the most.
    Stefan was infuriated—and in a dilemma. He knew Damon was curious about Elena. That was bad enough.But right now he could also see a strange gleam in Damon’s eyes. As if the pupils had, for a moment, reflected a flame. And whatever Damon had been doing today was abnormal. Stefan didn’t know what was going on, but he knew just how Damon was going to finish this off.
    “But a real vampire shouldn’t pay,” Damon was saying in his most taunting tones. “After all, we’re so wicked that we ought to be dust. Isn’t that right, little brother?” He held up the hand with the finger on which he wore the lapis lazuli ring that kept him from crumbling to dust in the golden afternoon sunlight. And then, as Stefan made a movement, Damon used that hand to pin Stefan’s wrist to the wall.
    Stefan feinted to the left and then lunged right to break Damon’s hold on him. But Damon was fast as a snake—no, faster. Much faster than usual. Fast and strong with all the energy of the life force he’d absorbed.
    “Damon, you…” Stefan was so angry that he briefly lost his hold on rational thought and tried to swipe Damon’s legs out from under him.
    “Yes, it’s me, Damon,” Damon said with jubilant venom. “And I don’t pay if I don’t feel like it; I just take. I take what I want, and I give nothing in return.”
    Stefan stared into those heated black-on-black eyes and again saw the tiny flicker of flame. He tried to think. Damon was always quick to attack, to take offense. But not like this . Stefan had known him long enough to knowsomething was off; something was wrong. Damon seemed almost feverish. Stefan sent a small surge of Power toward his brother, like a radar sweep, trying to put his finger on what was different.
    “Yes, I see you’ve got the idea, but you’ll never get anywhere that way,” Damon said wryly, and then suddenly Stefan’s insides, his entire body was on fire, was in agony, as Damon lashed out with a violent whip of his own Power.
    And now, however bad the pain was, Stefan had to be coldly rational; he had to keep thinking , not just reacting. He made a small movement, twisting his neck to the side, looking toward the door of the boardinghouse. If only Elena would stay inside…
    But it was hard to think with Damon still whiplashing him. He was breathing fast and hard.
    “That’s right,” Damon said. “We vampires take —a lesson you need to learn.”
    “Damon, we’re supposed to take care of each other—we promised—”
    “Yes, and I’m going to take care of you right now.”
    Then Damon bit him.
    And Damon bled him.
    It was even more painful than the lashings of Power, and Stefan held himself carefully still for it, refusing to put up a struggle. The razor-sharp teeth shouldn’t have hurt as they plunged into his carotid, but Damon was holding him at anangle—now by his hair—deliberately so that they did.
    Then came the real pain. The agony of having blood drawn out against your will, against your resistance. That was a torture that humans compared with having their souls ripped out from their living bodies. They would do anything to avoid it. All Stefan knew was that