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"I will, Stefan, I will" Elena was sobbing freely, trying to hold onto Stefan as his i softer

"Live well, Elena I’ll always love you"

And then Stefan was gone

Three hours later, Elena was back in Dalcrest Daas breaking, and sleepy birds began chirping to each other in the trees as she let herself into the apart roo for her She stopped and stared at him, struck anew by how beautiful he was--fine boned and sleekly arrogant--and how different from classically profiled, noble-faced Stefan

"Are you okay?" he asked Elena realized she own stained with the dust of the uninhabited house, her eyes wild, her hair disheveled, her face streaked with tears

"I’ve always loved you," she said "I won’t ever stop loving Stefan, but that doesn’t s for you are any less"

For a moment, Damon’s eyes shone and a soft saze clouded over Stefan Like a shout, the word hung in the air between the her felt like more of a betrayal to him than it ever had when Stefan was alive

"I saw Stefan," she said "Stefan’s ghost He was in , but he was there"

Damon sucked in a startled breath For a moment, his expression was full of wonder and alarm, and then it went smooth and perfectly blank, the way it always did when Da emotion

"No," Elena said sharply, and took a quick step across the living roorab hold of Damon’s arm "No, he was fine He seemed… content He wants us to be happy He wants o after what I want" She tried to se "He had a ive you"

Da, like the boy he’d been, who’d died on his brother’s sword so long ago "He did?" he asked

Elena nodded "He said he was sorry about all the bad blood there’d been between you, and he wanted ain, by the end"

Ducking his head, Damon smiled, a small, private smile that Elena had never seen before And then he wiped that s it with his customary brilliant flash of teeth "Well, I knew that, of course," he said "Just like Stefan, to show up as a ghost and state the obvious"

Elena took his hand and tugged hiuess I should have knohat he told me, too"

Da her fingers across the back of his hand, tracing the long bones of his fingers, Elena said slowly, "He told me that, if what I wanted was… you… if I loved you… he’d be happy forvery hard at the opposite wall, his dark eyes unreadable "And is it?" he asked, sounding almost indifferent "Am I what you want?"

"Oh, Damon, you know I’ve always loved you," Elena said, her voice breaking "Even when I wasn’t supposed to"

Da in his eyes, his h Elena leaned toward hiether inside her, and their lips , too, and Elena opened to it Between them, their bond flooded with emotion: love and joy, a sweet thrill of acceptance at last

Yes, she thought, the joy conquering the sorrow just as, outside, the sun broke over the horizon Yes This is my future

Chapter 34

"But the Eiffel Tower closes at eleven, it says so right on the sign," Elena objected, laughing "If you didn’t coet us up here so late?"