Stefan’s Diaries: The Craving Chapter 28

The three of us tore a aspect of the chapel. As soon as we left the Richards earth grounds we were plunging d unmatchable woods. Saplings stung our legs as we pitched floorhill through the wet night, and t every(prenominal)(prenominal) pines blocked whatever moonlight might kick in slipped between the clouds. If we had been human, our feet would have surely skidded on the forest floor of decaying leaves. inefficient to see more than a yard or so in front end of us we would have crashed into the giant trunk of a tree.Instead, we move uniform predators, coursing through the night like vampires had for hundreds of years streaking through the wilds to the next village of potential victims, chasing down fewone who had foolishly isolated from the herd and decided to travel at night by himself.It matte up good to be racing this manner, with a few ounces of human snag zinging through my veins. I was al close to able to lose myself in the flight, forgetting close to what it w as we were fleeing from.Then there was a noise.It started out like the beginning of a long roll of thunder, climbed into a crescendo of inhuman groaning, and ended in a screech of despair. The noise was everywhere, filling our ears, the v every last(predicate)ey we were descending into, the monger above us.The three of us stopped, startled by the sound.Well, I compute the vampire is free, Damon huffed.Margaret I began.Trust me, shes fine. Did you see what she did to him? Damon pointed out.What is she, though? I asked.A witch.Like Emily? I wondered, my theory confirmed. Was the world simply full of witches, vampires, demons, and who knows what else, most of which were invisible to human eye?I had a feeling there was something different about her when I couldnt compel her Damon explained. So I asked. And she answered. jolly straightforward, that one.So sheCast a protective spell around herself and her family, and was sunburn his brain meats with some mental ability or other to vitiate us a little time. Emphasis on the word little, he added. Hope that protective spell is still up.There was another roar. hold the line moving, Lexi ordered, and we began again.The woods grew blacker as if nature herself dreaded his approach, and we could feel the earth oscillate with his every footstep.Damon and I jump offed over a giant log, and for one momentaneous moment our motions were perfectly synchronized. alone then the three of us came to skidding hinderance at the edge of a cliff that looked out over all of upper Manhattan.Huh, my brother said doubtfully, peering over its edge.Well have to find some other way down, I said, starting to look back the way we came. A path, orWith a cry, Lexi hurled herself over the edge of the cliff.I watched her, spacious with horror.Find another way down? Damon said, shaking his head disappointedly at me. Still thinking like a human, brother. And he peacenik after her.I swore under my breath, watching him disappear into the br anches below. Then I followed.As frightening as that fall was, there was something very departure about it. I was weightless, swimming through the air. The world whistled through my outstretched fingers and hair. It almost felt as though I were flying.I ridiculous down through thick leafy canopy and rolled into a ball, eventually coming right side up with a worm ankle that reset itself almost before I noticed it.Damon and Lexi were rest still. She had her head cocked, listening to the strange quiet we suddenly found ourselves in.He lost us, Damon said, triumphantly. He didnt realize we went down the cliff HesHes in front of us, Lexi breathed, eyes widening. The silence to the south was in fact complete, as if every living thing had quieted or died. We waited, unsure what to do, though it was hard to verify for what.Then came the sound of a single blade of grass change form and breaking.RUN Lexi screamed.We took off. I made the mistake of looking bottomland me. What I saw and what I heard didnt match up on the one hand, it briefly appeared that an older man was following me with surprising swiftness. But the backside cast by the moonlight was of something far bigger and inhumanly shaped. Bushes and trees fell and crashed out of his way before he even touched them.I double my pace.We had no choice but to head south. The woods thinned and elaboration began to rear its ugly head a lonely, last farm, a bundle of abandoned holdings, a large estate, a hotel, dirt roads to coat avenues still crowded with horses and carriages and cabs and passel even in the middle of this night.And behind us, gaining power from every shadow through which he passed, was the old one.We off a corner around a fruit stand, knocking down baskets, and the stench of decay that issued from his raggedy breathing mouth was hot on my neck. We rush along through a slum, avoiding clotheslines and open pits of raw sewage, and he was there, throwing aside things and people to get to us. When we thought we had pulled ahead, twisting through narrow alleys and confusing side streets, we could still feel his exponent, his frustration vibrating through the night.Lexi led us, and whether it was her own Power or a familiarity with the city, she managed to find just the right fire escapes to leap to, just the right piles of garbage to roll over. Perhaps this was not the first time she had fled from a demon of this stature.The seaport, she hissed. Its our only chance.Damon nodded, for once having no trouble taking orders from someone else. We made our way to the west, to the avenues bordering the mighty Hudson.Lexis eyes suddenly narrowed and she pointed. A clipper ship, a pretty calendered blue vessel just pulling away from the dock, filled with all sorts of New York goods to sell overseas.With a mighty leap Lexi cleared the pissing between the dock and its deck, arms poised in the air like a cat leaping upon its prey. Damon and I followed suit, silently landing on the dark deck. By the time we recovered ourselves she was already compelling a shocked sailor who had seen the manner of our arrival.Were on the manifest. My brothers and I have a berth below. We did not just leap aboard.Damon surveyed the ship with interest, rapturous with his new locale.I looked back toward shore. There stood a single, innocuous-seeming man contestation against the rail of the wharf, pale as if he had sucked all the moonlight into himself. He stood casually, like he was just there to watch the ships come and go.But the look in his eyes was deadly and eternal and unforgiving.