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Da his way up the beautiful rose-covered trel is below theof the bedchane, a very wealthy, beautiful, and irl who had the bluest blood of any va to the books he’d bought In fact, he’d listened to the locals and it was ruo, and had given her this bijoux castle to live in Delicate geh, the little castle had already presented Damon with several problems There had been that razor-wire fence, on which he ripped his leather jacket; an unusual y dexterous and stubborn guard whole; an inner s that he had treated with the Saber-tranquilizer routine - using Mrs Flowers’s sleeping powder, which he’d brought with him from Earth It would have been easier to poison them, but Jessalyn was reputed to have a very soft heart for animals and he needed her for at least three days That should be long enough tothose days

Now, as he pul ed hi rose thorns to the list of inconveniences He also rehearsed his first speech to Jessalyn She had been - was - would forever be - eighteen But it was a young eighteen, since she had only two years’experience at being a vampire

He comforted himself with this as he cli slowly in case the princess had guardian animals in her bedchamber, Damon parted layer after layer of filht of the sun fro into the cha Making it out of the enfolding curtains, Damon saw that the entire chamber was decorated in a simple theme by a master of contrast Jet-black and off-black black

He liked it a lot

There was an enor fil it The only way to approach it was from the foot, where the diaphanous curtains were thinner

Standing there in the cathedral-like silence of the great chaure under the black silk sheets, a dozens of smal throw pil ows

She was a jewel like the castle Delicate bones A look of utter innocence as she slept An ethereal river of fine, scarlet hair spil ing about her He could see individual hairs straying on the black sheets She looked a little like Bonnie

Damon was pleased

He pul ed out the same knife he had put to Elena’s throat, and just for aof Elena’s golden warile-shouldered child in front of him He put the point of the knife to his chest, deliberately placing it wide of his heart in case so happened The princess, earing a black negligee that showed frail-looking ar Daers were lacquered the exact scarlet of her hair

The two large pil ar candles set in tal black stands were giving off an enticing perfu clocks - the farther down they burned, the easier to tel ti was perfect - except that Jessalyn was stil asleep

Daain, loudly - and bu up and si two sheathed blades out of her hair

"Who is it? Is soht one

"It’s only ht with unrequited need "You don’t have to be afraid,"he added, now that she’d at last gotten the right direction and seen him He knelt by the foot of her bed

He’d h that his chest and the knife were far below Jessalyn’s line of sight

"Here I wil take my life,"he announced, very loudly to ram

After a moment or two the princess’s head popped up over the foot of the bed She balanced herself with hands spread wide and narrow shoulders hunched close to her At this distance he could see that her eyes were green - a cos and speckles

At first she just hissed at hiers were tipped with nails of scarlet

Damon bore with her She would learn in time that al this wasn’t real y necessary; that in fact it had gone out of fashion in the real world decades ago and was only kept alive by pulp fiction and old ain, to make sure she didn’t miss a syl able, or the entire point, for that matter

"You - yourself?"She was suspicious "Who are you? How did you get here? Why would you do such a thing?"

"I got here through the road of my er live with"

"Whatto do it now?"the princess asked with interest "Because if you’re not, I’l have to cal uards and - wait a rabbed his knife before he could stop her and licked it

"This is ait back

"I know"Damon let his head fal so that hair curtained his eyes and said painful y: "I ah his lashes and he saw that Jessalyn brightened up "I thought you were just some weak, useless vampire,"she said absently "But now that I look at you"A rose petal of a pink tongue ca the good stuff, is there?"

She was like Bonnie She said exactly what she thought, when she thought it Soain, looking at the girl on the bed with al the fire and passion of which he was capable - and felt that it wasn’t enough Thinking about the real Bonnie, alone and unhappy, waswel , passion-quenching But what else could he do?

Suddenly he knehat he could do Before, when he’d stopped hienuine passion or desire But he was doing this for Elena, as much as for himself Elena couldn’t be his Princess of Darkness if he couldn’t be her Prince

This time, when he looked down at M le Princess, it was differently He could feel the atht even to speak to you,"he said, deliberately putting one booted foot on the metal scrol work that formed the frame of the bed "You knoel as I that you can kilto a spot on his jaw - "but you have already slain me - "

Jessalyn looked confused, but waited

" - with love I fel in love with you the moment I saw you You could break my neck, or - as I would say if I were permitted to touch your perfuers aroundyou to do it"

Jessalyn was beginning to look puzzled but excited

Blushing, she held out one sling hi his eyes off hers "That is the only thing I ask of you: that you kil uards so that the last sight I see wil be your beautiful face"

"You’re il ,"Jessalyn decided, stil looking flustered "There have been other unbalanced minds who have h never to ive you to the doctors so that they can ed his way through the last of the fil princess "Grantme to die a little each day You don’t knohat I’ve done I can’t stop drea of you I’ve fol owed you fro now as you ravishthat I a stones you walk on No doctor can change that"

Jessalyn was clearly considering Obviously, no one had ever talked to her like this

Her green eyes fixed on his lips, the lower of which was stil bleeding Dah and said,

"One of your guards caught me and very properly tried to kil me before I could reach you and disturb your sleep I’ between one pil ar candle and the girl on the bed so that his shadoas thrown over her

Jessalyn’s eyes widened in approval even as the rest of her see,"she whispered "I could - "

"You can do anything you want,"Daed her with a wry quirk of a smile on his lips It was true She could

"Then come here"She thumped a place by the nearest pil ow on the bed "What are you cal ed?"

"Damon,"he said as he stripped off his jacket and lay down, chin propped on one elboith the air of one not unused to such things