Stefan’s Diaries: Origins Chapter 12

Im non sure if it was the refreshed air or the flowers Emily had brought me, scarcely I slept soundly that night. The next scratch line light I woke up to silvern sunlight in my chambers and, for the first beat since Rosalyns death, didnt bother to drink the concoction Cordelia had go away on my nightstand. The nip of cinnamon and eggs floated up from the kitchen, and I heard the snort of the horses as Alfred hitched them outside. For a second, I felt a thrill of possibility and the parturient bud of happiness.Stefan my father boomed on the other side of the door, rapping three conviction with his walkway stick or locomote crop. Just alike(p) that, I remembered all that had transpired in the past week, and my malaise re glum.I remained silent, hoping hed simply go away. just instead he swung the door open. He was wearing his riding breeches and carried his black riding crop, a smile on his governance and a sprig of a violet flower in his lapel. It was uncomplete p retty nor fragrant in fact, it human faceed like one of the herbs Cordelia grew cumulation by the servants quarters.Were going riding, obtain announced as he swung open the shutters. I shaded my eyes against the gl atomic number 18. Was the world always so b ripe(p)? This chamber postulate to be cleaned and you, my male child, need sun. further I should really att sup correct to my studies, I tell, gesturing limply to the volume of Macbeth open on my desk. draw took the book and unlikable it with a definitive clap. I need to speak to you and Damon, away from every prying ears. He glanced suspiciously around the chambers. I followed his gaze alone saw nonhing except for a collection of dirty dishes that Cordelia hadnt even cle bed.As if on cue, Damon strode into the room, wearing a pair of moldinessard-colored breeches and his gray Confederate coat. sustain Damon rolled his eyes. Dont tell me youre on roughly that demigod nonsense again.Its non nonsense obtain ro bed. Stefan, Ill see you and your companion at the stable, he give tongue to, turning on his heel and striding out. Damon shake his head, past followed him, go forth me to change.I put on my in effect(p) riding costumea gray waistcoat and brown breechesand breatheed, not sure I had enough strength to ride or to endure another marathon bickering session between my father and brother. When I opened the door, I frame Damon standing at the bottom of the curved staircase, waiting.Feeling conk out, brother? Damon asked as we walked out the door and across the lawn together.I nodded, even as I noticed the spot under the exitow tree where Id found Rosalyn. The grass willow tree where Id found Rosalyn. The grass was long and bright green, and squirrels were darting around the trees gnarled trunk. Sparrows chirped, and the drooping branches of the weeping willow looked lush and full of promise. There was no sign that anything had been amiss.I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached th e stable, inhaling the familiar, loved scent of well- oiled leather and sawdust. Hi, girl, I whisper into Mezzanottes velvety ear. She whinnied in appreciation. Her coat seemed silky-smooth, even more so than the croak time Id brushed it. Sorry I nament come to visit you, exactly it looks like my brothers taken good care of you.Actually, Katherines taken a shine to her. Which is too bad for her own horses. Damon smiled fondly as he jerked his get up to two coal- black mares in the corner. Indeed, they were stamping their feet and staring at the ground dejectedly, as if to express just how ignored and lonely they were.Y ouve been spending quite a bit of time with Katherine, I said finally. It was a statement, not a question. Of course he had been. Damon always had an ease around women. I knew he knew women, especially after his year in the Confederate army. Hed told me stories about some of the women hed met in cities like Atlanta and Lexington that had made me blush. Did he realise Katherine? I have been, Damon said, swinging his leg over the support of his horse, Jake. He didnt elaborate.Ready, boys? Father called, his horse impatiently stamping its feet. I nodded and fell into stride basis Damon and Father as we headed to the Wickery Bridge, all the way on the other end of the property.We crossed the bridge and go on on into the forest. I blinked in relief. The sunlight had been too bright. I oftentimes preferred the blueish shadows of the trees. The woods were cool, with annoyed leaves covering the forest floor, even though there hadnt been a rainstorm recently. The leaves were so thick, you could see only slight patches of blue set up, and occasionally Id hear the lift of a raccoon or badger in the underbrush. I act not to think of the animal noises as coming from the beast that had attacked Rosalyn.We continued riding into the forest until we reached the clearing. Father abruptly sojournped and hitched his horse to a birch tree. I obedie ntly hitched Mezzanotte to a tree and glanced around. The clearing was mark by a collection of rocks set up in a rough circle, above which the trees parted to provide a natural summitow to the sky. I hadnt been there in ages, not since onward Damon went away. When we were boys, we used to shoo-in illicit card games here with the other fellows in town. Everyone knew the clearing was the rove boys came to gamble, girls came to gossip, and everyone came to spill their secrets. If Father really meant to keep our conversation quiet, hed have been better off taking us to the tavern to talk.Were in trouble, Father said without preamble, glancing up at the sky. I followed his gaze, expecting to see a fast-moving summer storm. Instead, the sky was spotless and blue. I found no solace in this elegant day. I was still haunted by Rosalyns lifeless eyes.Were not, Father, Damon said thickly. Y ou hump whos in trouble? either of the soldiers fighting this godforsaken fight for this caus e youve made me get word to believe in. The problem is the warfare and your eonian need to find conflict everywhere you turn. Damon angrily stomped his feet, reminding me so much of Mezzanotte that I stifled the urge to laugh.I will not have you talk back to me Father said, shaking his fist at Damon. I glanced back and forth at the two of them, as though I were watching a tennis match. Damon towered over Fathers sloping shoulders, and for the first time I realized that Father was getting old.Damon put his hands on his hips. Then talk. Lets hear what you have to say.I expected Father to shout, nevertheless instead he crossed to one of the rocks, his knees creaking as he bent to sit. Y hope to know why I left Italy?ou I left it for you. For my future children. I knew I wanted my sons to parent and marry and have children on convey I owned and land I loved. And I do love this land, and I will not watch it be destroyed by demons, Father said, flinging his hands wildly. I stepped b ack, and Mezzanotte whinnied a long, plaintive note. Demons, he repeated, as if to prove his point.Demons? Damon snorted. More like big dogs. Dont you see its talk like this that will fuck off you pretermit everything? Y say you want a good lifeou for us, but youre always deciding how well live that life. Y made me go to war and made Stefanou get engaged, and now youre making us believe your sissy tales, Damon yelled in frustration.I glanced at Father guiltily. I didnt want him to know I hadnt loved Rosalyn. But Father didnt look at me. He was too busy glowering at Damon.All I wanted was for my boys to have the best. I know what were facing, and I do not have time for your schoolboy arguments. I am not telling tales right now. Father glanced back at me, and I forced myself to look into his dark eyes. Please understand. There are demons who walk among us. They existed in the old country, too. They walked the resembling earth, talked like humans. But they wouldnt drink like humans .Well, if they dont drink wine, that would be a blessing, wouldnt it? Damon asked sarcastically. blessing, wouldnt it? Damon asked sarcastically. I stiffened. I remembered all the times after Mother had died that Father would drink too much wine or whiskey, lock himself in the study, then mumble late into the night about ghosts or demons.Damon Father said, his voice even sharper than my brothers. I will ignore your impudence. But I will not have you ignore me. Listen to me, Stefan. Father turned toward me. What you saw happen to your young Rosalyn wasnt natural. It wasnt one of Damons coyotes, Father said, practically spitting out the al-Quran. It was un vampiro. They were in the old country, and now theyre here, Father said, love up his florid face. And they are doing harm. Theyre feeding on us. And we need to stop it.What do you mean? I asked nervously, any trace of exhaustion or dizziness gone. All I felt was fear. I thought back to Rosalyn, but this time, instead of rememberi ng her eyes, I remembered the blood on her throat, having flowed from the two precise circles on the side of her neck. I touched my own neck, sapidity the pulse of blood beneath my skin. The rush below my fingers sped up as I felt my heart skip a beat. Could Father be right?Father means that hes been spending too much time listening to the church ladies tell their tales. Father, this is a story that would be told to scud a child. And not a very clever one. Everything youre saying is nonsense. Damon shook his head and angrily stood from his perch on the tree stump. I will not sit around and be told ghost stories. With that, he turned on his gold- buttoned boot and swung his foot up over Jakes back, gazing down at Father, as if daring him to say one more thing. physiognomy my words, Father said, taking a step closer to me. Vampires are among us. They look like us and can live among us, but they are not who we are. They drink blood. It is their elixir of life. They do not have souls , and they never die. They are forever immortal.The word immortal made me suck in my breath. The wind changed, and the leaves began rustling. I shivered. Vampires, I repeated slowly. Id heard the word once before, when Damon and I were schoolchildren and used to gather on the Wickery Bridge, trying to scare our friends. One boy had told us of seeing a figure kneeling down in the woods, feasting on the neck of a deer. The boy told us he had screamed and the figure had turned to him with hellred eyes, blood dripping from long, sharp teeth. A vampire, he said with conviction, glancing around the circle to see if hed impressed any of us. But because hed been pale and scrawny and not any good at shooting, wed laughed and mocked him mercilessly. He and his family had moved to Richmond the next year.Well, Id take vampires over an insane father, Damon said, gripe Jakes flanks and riding off into the sunset. I turned toward Father, expecting an angry tirade. But Father simply shook his head .Do you believe me, son? he asked.I nodded, even though I wasnt sure what I believed. All I knew was that somehow, in the past week, the whole world had changed, and I wasnt sure where I fit in anymore.Good. Father nodded as we rode out of the forest and onto the bridge. We must be careful. It seems the war has awakened the vampires. Its as if they can smell blood.The word blood echoed in my mind as we directed our horses to walk away from the cemetery and toward the shortcut through the fields that would lead to the pond. In the distance, I could see the sun reflecting on the ponds surface. No one would ever create mentally this verdant, rolling land as being a place where demons walked. Demons, if they existed at all, belonged in the old country, amid the decrepit churches and castles Father had grown up with. All the words Father said were familiar, but they sounded so strange in the place where he was saying them.Father glanced around as if to make sure no one was hiding in the bushes near the bridge. The horses were walking alongside the graveyard now, the headstones bright and shocking in the now, the headstones bright and imposing in the warm summer light. Blood is what they feed on. It gives them power.But then , I said, as the information whirled in my brain. If they are immortal, then how are we to Kill them? Father asked, finishing my thought. He pulled the reins on his horse. There are methods. Ive been learning. Ive heard theres a priest in Richmond who can try to exorcise them, but then people in town know some things, he finished. Jonathan Gilbert and Sheriff Forbes and I have discussed some former measures. If theres anything I can do , I offered finally, unsure what to say.Of course, Father said brusquely. I expect you to be part of our committee. For starters, Ive been talking to Cordelia. She knows her herbs, and she says theres a plant called vervain. Fathers hand fluttered to the flower on his lapel. We will come up with a plan. And we will prevail. Because while they may have immortality, we have God on our side. It is kill or be killed. Do you understand me, boy? This is the war youre being drafted to fight.I nodded, feeling the full weight of the responsibility on my shoulders. Maybe this was what I was meant to be doing not getting married or going off to war, but fighting an unnatural evil. I met Fathers gaze. Ill do whatever you want, I said. Anything. The last thing I saw before I galloped back to the stable was the huge grin on Fathers face. I knew you would, son. Y are a true Salvatore.