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wants." She turned back to Stefan. "Stefan, I can cure what Klaus did. Tonight
I have that much Power. But I can't cure what Katherine did."
Bonnie'snumbed brain struggled with this for a while. What Katherine did but
Stefan had recovered months ago from Katherine's torture in the crypt. Then
she understood. What Katherine had done was make Stefan a vampire.
"It's been too long," Stefan was saying to Elena. "If youdid cure it, I'd be
a pile of dust."
"Yes." Elena didn't smile, just went on looking at him steadily. "Do you want
my help, Stefan?"
"To go on living in this world in the shadows& " Stefan's voice was a whisper
now, his green eyes distant. Bonnie wanted to shake him.Live , she thought to
him, but she didn't dare say it for fear she'd make him decide just the
opposite. Then she thought of something else.
"To go on trying," she said, and both of them looked at her. She looked back,
chin thrust out, and saw the beginning of a smile on Elena's bright lips.
Elena turned to Stefan, and that tiny hint of a smile passed to him.
"Yes," he said quietly, and then, to Elena, "I want your help."
She bent and kissed him.
Bonnie saw the brightness flow from her to Stefan, like a river of sparkling
light engulfing him. It flooded over him the way the dark mist had surrounded
Klaus, like a cascade of diamonds, until his entire body glowed like Elena's.
For an instant Bonnie imagined she could see the blood inside him turned
molten, flowing out to each vein, each capillary, healing everything it
touched. Then the glow faded to a golden aura, soaking back into Stefan's
skin. His shirt was still demolished, but underneath the flesh was smooth and
firm. Bonnie, feeling her own eyes wide with wonder, couldn't help reaching
out to touch.
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It felt just like any skin. The horrible wounds were gone.
She laughed aloud with sheer excitement, and then looked up, sobering.
"Elena there's Meredith, too "
The bright being that was Elena was already moving across the clearing.
Meredith looked up at her from Caroline's lap.
"Hello, Elena," she said, almost normally,except that her voice was so weak.
Elena bent and kissed her. The brightness flowed again, encompassing
Meredith. And when it faded, Meredith stood up on her own two feet.
Then Elena did the same thing with Matt, who woke up, looking confused but
alert. She kissed Caroline too, and Caroline stopped shaking and straightened.
Then she went to Damon.
He was still lying where he had fallen. The ghosts had passed over him,
taking no notice of him. Elena's brightness hovered over him, one shining hand
reaching to touch his hair. Then she bent and kissed the dark head on the
ground.
As the sparkling light faded, Damon sat up and shook his head. He saw Elena
and went still, then, every movement careful and self-contained, stood up. He
didn't say anything, only looked as Elena turned back to Stefan.
He was silhouetted against the fire. Bonnie had scarcely noticed how the red
glow had grown so that it almost eclipsed Elena's gold. But now she saw it and
felt a thrill of alarm.
"My last gift to you," Elena said, and it began to rain.
Not a thunder-and-lightning storm, but a thorough pattering rain that soaked
everything Bonnie included and doused the fire. It was fresh and cool, and it
seemed to wash all the horror of the last hours away, cleansing the glade of
everything that had happened there. Bonnie tilted her face up to it, shutting
her eyes, wanting to stretch out her arms and embrace it. At last it slackened
and she looked again at Elena.
Elena was looking at Stefan, and there was no smile on her lips now. The
wordless sorrow was back in her face.
"It's midnight," she said. "And I have to go."
Bonnie knew instantly, at the sound of it, that "go" didn't just mean for the
moment. "Go" meant forever. Elena was going somewhere that no trance or dream
could reach.
And Stefan knew it too.
"Just a few more minutes," he said, reaching for her.
"I'm sorry "
"Elena, wait I need to tell you "
"I can't!" For the first time the serenity of that bright face was destroyed,
showing not only gentle sadness but tearing grief. "Stefan, I can't wait. I'm
so sorry." It was as if she were being pulled backward, retreating from them
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into some dimension that Bonnie could not see. Maybe the same placeHonoria
went when her task was finished, Bonnie thought.To be at peace.
But Elena's eyes didn't look as if she were at peace. They clung to Stefan,
and she reached out her hand toward his, hopelessly. They didn't touch.
Wherever Elena was being pulled was too far away.
"Elena please!" It was the voice Stefan had called her with in his room. As
if his heart was breaking.
"Stefan," she cried, both hands held out to him now. But she was diminishing,
vanishing. Bonnie felt a sob swell in her own chest, close her own throat. It
wasn't fair. All they had ever wanted was to be together. And now Elena's
reward for helping the town and finishing her task was to be separated from
Stefan irrevocably. It just wasn'tfair .
"Stefan," Elena called again, but her voice came as if from a long distance.
The brightness was almost gone. Then, as Bonnie stared through helpless tears,
it winked out.
Leaving the clearing silent once again.They were all gone, the ghosts
ofFell's Church who had walked for one night to keep more blood from being
spilled. The bright spirit that had led them had vanished without a trace, and
even the moon and stars were covered by clouds.
Bonnie knew that the wetness on Stefan's face wasn't due to the rain that was
still splashing down.
He was standing, chest heaving, looking at the last place where Elena's
brightness had been seen. And all the longing and the pain Bonnie had glimpsed
on his face at times before was nothing to what she saw now.
"It isn't fair," she whispered. Then she shouted it to the sky, not caring
who she was addressing. "It isn't fair!"
Stefan had been breathing more and more quickly. Now he lifted his face too,
not in anger but in unbearable pain. His eyes were searching the clouds as if
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