The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 13

The Demon Gate.Elena glanced over her shoulder at the buttseat of the Prius. Bonnie was blinking quietusily. Meredith, whod gotten much less sleep but heard much to a greater extent alarming news, was looking kindred a razor weather vane keen, sharp as ice, and ready. in that respect was nobody else to see except Damon with his paper bags on the seat beside him, unprompted the Prius. Out the windows, where an arid genus Arizona dawn should be blinding its steering across the horizon, was nothing but fog.It was frightening and disorienting. They had taken a small road off Highway 179 and, gradually, the fog had crept in, aerateing tendrils of defile around the car, and finally engulfing it whole. It seemed to Elena that they were being deliberately cut off from the old ordinary world of McDonalds and Target, and were go across a border into a place they werent meant to know ab stunned, much less go.There was no trade in the other direction. None at all. And as hard as Elen a peered out of her window, it was handle seek to look through fast-moving clouds.Arent we way out to a fault fast? Bonnie asked, rubbing her eyes.No, Damon said. It would be a unusual coincidence if anyone else were on the akin route at the same time we are.It looks a lot like Arizona, she said, disappointed.It may be Arizona, for all I know, Damon replied. exactly we havent crossed the Gate yet. And this isnt anywhere in Arizona you could just accidentally walk into. The path always has its little tricks and traps. The problem is that you never know what youll be facing.Now listen, he added, looking at Elena with an expression she had gotten to know. It meant Im not joking around Im talking to you as an equal Im serious.Youve gotten very good at showing only a human-sized aura, Damon said. But that means that if you deal learn one more than thing onwards we go in, you cannister actually use your aura, fix it do you some good when you want it to, instead of just hidin g it until it pops up out of operate on and lifts three-thousand-pound cars.Like what kind of good?Like what Im going to show you. First of all just loosen up and let me control it. Then, little by little, Ill slacken the controls and youll take them up. By the end, you should be subject to send your forefingers to your eyes and see much better to your ears and hear much better to your limbs and move much more libertinely and precisely. All right?You couldnt have taught me this before we started on this little excursion?He smiled at her, a wild, reckless smile that made her smile, too, even if she didnt know what it was about. Until you showed how well you could control your aura throughout the path the way here I didnt think you were ready, he said bluntly. Now I do. There are things in your mind just waiting to be unlocked. Youll to a lower placestand when we unlock them.And we unlock them with what? A kiss? Elena thought suspiciously.No. No. And thats the other reason youve got to learn this. Your telepathy is getting out of hand. If you dont learn how to keep from projecting your thoughts, youll never make it past the checkpoint at the Gate as a human.Checkpoint. That sounded ominous. Elena nodded and said, All right what do we do?What we did before. Like I said, relax. Try to trust me.He displace his right hand just to the left of her breastbone, not touching the cloth of her deep gold top. Elena could feel herself flushing, and she wondered what Bonnie and Meredith must think of this if they were watching.And then Elena felt something else.It wasnt cold it wasnt heat, but it was something like the furthest extremities of both of them. It was pure Power. It would have knocked her over if Damon hadnt been holding her by the arm with his other hand. She thought, hes using his own Power to prime mine, to do something something that hurt No Elena tried, vocally and telepathically, to tell Damon that the Power was too much, that it hurt. But Dam on unheeded her pleas even as he ignored the tears that spilled onto her cheeks. His Power was leading hers now, painfully, throughout her body. It was in her bloodstream, pull her own Power behind it like a comets tail. It was forcing her to take the Power to different parts of her body and let it build and build there, not letting her exhale it, not letting her move it on.Im going to burst All this time her eyes had been fixed on Damons, broadcasting her feelings to him from indignant anger to nose candy to agonized pain and nowtoHer mind exploded.The rest of her Power went on circling, without causing any pain. distributively new breath she drew added more Power to it, but it simply circulated through her bloodstream, not change magnitude her aura, but increasing the Power that was in spite of appearance her. After two or three more quick breaths she agnize that she was doing it effortlessly.Now Elenas Power wasnt simply sliding around smoothly inside her, looking from t he foreign like any other humans. It was also filling several burst swollen nodes inside her and where it did that, it changed things.She realized that she was looking at Damon with round eyes. He might have told her about how this would feel, kind of than letting her go into it blind.You really are a total bastard, arent you? Elena thought, and, amazingly, she could feel Damon receive the thought, and could feel his automatic response, which was pleased agreement, quite an than otherwise.Then Elena forgot about him in the dawning of a new understanding. She was realizing that she could keep circulating her Power inside her, and even build it higher and higher, getting ready for a truly explosive burst, and show nothing of what it was doing on the surface.And as for the nodesElena looked around her at what a few minutes ago had been barren wilderness. It was like taking bullets of light through both her eyes. She was dazzled she was enthralled. Colors seemed to come to life in a painful glory. She felt that she could see much farther than she ever had, on and on into the desert, and at the same time, she could distinguish Damons pupils from his irises.Why, theyre both black, but different shades of black, she thought. Of course, they go together Damon would never have irises that didnt complement his pupils. But the irises are more velvety, where his pupils are more silky and shiny. And yet its a velvet that can hold light inside it almost like the night sky with stars like those kitsune star balls that Meredith told me about. objurgate now those pupils were wide and set unyieldingly on her face, as if Damon didnt want to miss a moment of her reaction. Suddenly, the ceding back of his lip quirked in a faint smile.You did it. You learned to channel your Power to your eyes. He spoke in a bare whisper that she could never have detected before.And to my ears, she whispered back, listening to the amazing symphonic music of tiny sounds around her. High in t he air, a bat squeaked on a frequency too high for any ordinary human ear to notice. As for the fall of grains of sand around her, they form something like a tiny concerto as they struck rock and bounced with a tiny ping before falling to the ground below.This is amazing, she told Damon, hearing the smugness in her own telepathic voice. And I can talk to you this way any time now? She would have to watch out for that telepathy threatened to weaken more than she might want to send to a recipient.Its best to be careful, Damon agreed, confirming her suspicions. Shed sent more than shed meant to.But Damon can Bonnie do this, too? Should I try to show her?Who knows? Damon replied aloud, making Elena wince. Teaching existence how to use Power isnt exactly my forte.And what about my different Wings Powers? Will I be able to control them, now?About those I have absolutely no idea. Ive never seen anything like them. Damon looked serious-minded for a moment and then shook his head. I thi nk youd need someone with more know than I have to learn to control those. Before Elena could say anything else, he added, Wed better get back to the others. Were almost at the Gate.And I suppose I shouldnt be using telepathy then.Well, it is a rather obvious giveaway But youll teach me later, wont you? As much as you know about imperative Power?Maybe your boyfriend should be doing that, Damon said almost roughly.Hes afraid, Elena thought, trying to keep her thoughts hidden under a wall of white noise so that Damon wouldnt pick them up. Hes just as afraid that hell reveal too much to me as I am afraid of him.