“You really think he’ll be all right?” Ethan asked anxiously.
“Yes,” Stefan answered.
He glanced down at Isabelle, smiling softly as he realized that she was sound asleep. “Thank you,”Ethansaid softly.
Stefan glanced sharply up at him. “I didn’t do anything,” he replied, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
“You got there a lot faster than any of us would have, and you knew that they were in trouble.”
“I knew that Isabelle was in trouble,” he corrected.
Ethansmiled softly. “Just like in the club.”
Stefan shrugged slightly, careful not to jar Isabelle out of her sleep.“Yeah.”
Ethan’s smile faded as he glanced down at Isabelle. Stefan pulled her tighter against him, tensing at the thought thatEthanmight touch her, but he made no move to. “You were the last thing that sheeverwanted you know,”hesaid softly.
Stefan’s eyes snapped with fury as they met Ethan’s. “What?” he demanded angrily.
Ethan flashed a bright grin as he met Stefan’s furious gaze. “We weren’t the anti-social ones for no reasonyou know.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he growled, his anger growing by the second.
“Calm down,”Ethansaid gently. “I’m just saying that she stayed hidden up here, never fed from humans, and avoided them at all costs, because this was the last thing that sheeverwanted to have happen to her.”
It was taking everything that Stefan had not to grab him by the throat and shake somewords out of him that madesense. “Whatdo you mean?” he nearly bellowed.
Isabelle shifted slightly;one arm felllimply into her lap. Stefan forced himself to take a deep breath, and calm downbefore he woke her. She needed as much sleep as she could get. “You still haven’t figured it out?” David asked incredulously.
Stefan shot him a glowering look. “Figured what out?” he demanded.
“I thought when you came back here it was because you knew.” David shook his head as he closed his eyes and chuckled softly. “Man, you are dense.”
“Look...” Stefan hissed, fury building inside of him. Isabelle whimpered softly as she buried her head tighter against his chest, instinctively trying to soothe him in her sleep. It took everything he had to remain calm.
“Isabelle never wanted to find her soul mate,” Ethanexplainedquickly.
Stefan turned toward him, his eyes narrowed fiercely. The full knowledge of whatEthanhad just said slammed into him, knocking the breath from his lungs as he froze instantly. They turned to stare at him, various expressions of amusement on their faces. He didn’t find anything at all amusing in the situation.
He shook his head as he glanced down at the woman curled so trustingly within his arms. Even though there were dark shadows under her eyes, and a pinched look around her mouth, she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Ever touched. Yetit wasn’t her beauty that had brought him back here, and it wasn’t just his need to possess her body. It had been something else, something more. Something that he hadnot understood until that moment. Now, everything was beginning to make sense.
How could he have not known sooner? he wondered dully.
He suddenly understood his desperate need for her, her ability to reach him in the club, his inability to be apart from her, and why he still felt the beast clawing at his insides, wanting to break free. He hadn’t fully claimed her. He had wanted to feed off of her, to taste her, and have her do the same, but he had held back because of what had happened to her at the club.He had alsonever allowed anyone to feedfromhim, until Kyle. But with Kyle it had been necessity, with Isabelle it would be another way of marking her as his. That had been part of what had held him back, he knew that it would have meant there would be no letting go of her, ever. The idea had frightened him then, but now...
His brow furrowed as he looked at her in his shirt. It was ridiculously big on her, the sleeves hung over her elbows, the edge of it endedat mid thigh. A fierce wave of possession swept through him as he realized how delicately fragile she was, how much weaker she was than him.How much she needed his strength,and protection,especially from her own damn recklessness. If she had slipped today, if she had stumbled, than she wouldn’t be here with him right now. The demon in him boiled instantly to the front, raging violently against the possibility of losing her. If she had died, it would have destroyed him. He never would have been able to survive without her.
That knowledge frightened the hell out of him.
“Whynot?” His voice was strained with the emotions that raced through him as he lifted his head to look at Ethan.
Ethan’s eyes were sad and distant as he stared down at his sister.“She never wanted her existence to hinge on someone else’s,”heanswered softly.
Stefan knew exactly how she felt. No wonder she had gone out of her way to avoid him. She had recognized the signs from the beginning. She hadn’t been fighting against him, but herself, and the implications of what his arrival had signaled. He understood now why she had fled into the house the first night that he had seen her. Understood why he had been unable to tear his gaze away from her. When she had run into the house that first night, she hadn’t been scared of him because he was a vampire, but scared of the way that he had made her feel, and what the consequences of those feelings might be. He now knew why he had been able to feel her panic, and pain that night in the club, why he had been unable to leave her.
He was such an idiot. He should have known what was going on, should have recognized the signs. Hell he was the one that had told David aboutLiamand Sera, how could he not have known?
He sighed softly as he closed his eyes and tried to sort through everything. He hadn’trecognized itbecause he had never thought that it could happen to him. He had never given much thought to the soul mate thing.He had heard of it, and he knew what it meant, but he had never thought that it wouldaffecthim. He had been alive for a long time, and he had never met anyone that he would have even considered changing, or settling down with. After all these years, he hadn’t thought that it was possibletofind anyone. He knew now that he had been completely, and utterly,wrong.
