also made note of the stiffness in
his neck and shoulders—places where tension built up. The Dark
Dimension was already taking its toll on him, psychically, even as he
mocked it.
She wondered how many soundings of Power by the merely
curious he was having to block each second. She was about to offer to
help by opening herself up to the eldritch world, when he snapped,
“Guess!” in a tone that didn’t make it a suggestion.
“Gold,” Elena said instantly, surprising herself. When she reached
to take the golden square from his hand a powerful, pleasurable feeling
of electric current shot from her palm up her arm and seemed to skewer
her straight through the heart. Damon clung to her fingers briefly as she
took the square and Elena found she could still feel electricity pulsing
from his fingertips.
The underside of her veil blew out white and sparkling as if set
with diamonds. God, maybe they were diamonds, she thought. How
could you tell with Damon?
“Your wedding veil, perhaps?” Damon murmured, lips close to her
ear. The rope around Elena’s wrists had come very loose and she stroked
the diaphanous fabric helplessly, feeling the tiny jewels on the white
side cool to the touch of her fingers.
“How did you know you’d need all this stuff?” Elena asked, with
bruising practicality. “You didn’t know everything, but you seemed to