Bloodlust (The Vampire Diaries 15)

"Thats great news," Buxton breathed sarcastically.

"Buxton. " Lexi glanced at him reproachfully before turning her attention back to me. "Did you forget our plans?"

I racked my brain, but finally shook my head. "Im sorry. " Lexi sighed. "Remember--Im taking you shopping. I may be a vampire, but I still have a womans vanity, and it simply doesnt suit me to be surrounded by men in ill-fitting clothing. What would the neighbors think?" She laughed, amused by her own joke.

"Oh, right. " I inched toward the stairway. "Maybe we could go tomorrow? Im exhausted. "

"Im serious, Stefan," Lexi said, taking my arm. "You need clothes, and its a tradition of sorts. I took those two gentlemen in for fittings, and look at them now," she said, nodding toward Buxton and Hugo as if exceptionally pleased with her work. It was true. From Buxtons high-collared blue coat to Hugos well-tailored britches, theydidlook handsome. "Besides, you dont have a choice," she said mischievously.

"I dont?"

"No. " Lexi opened the door with a flourish. "Boys, were off. When we come back, you wont even recognize Stefan, hell look so handsome!"

"Bye,handsome!" Buxton yelled sarcastically as the door clicked closed. Lexi shook her head, but I didnt mind. In an odd way, Id gotten used to Buxton. He was like a brother of sorts. A brother with a potentially fatal short temper, but one Id gotten used to managing.

Together, Lexi and I walked companionably into the cool night air. I saw Lexi looking at me out of the corner of her eye, and I wondered what she saw.

I felt I was living three distinct lives: In one, I was a loyal brother, in another I was a new member of a club I didnt quite understand, and in the third I was a young man placing my trust in a human woman--a woman whom I had staked my own flesh and blood to save. The trouble was, I wasnt sure how to seamlessly live all three lives.

"Youre quiet," Lexi said in midstep. "And"--she sniffed the air--"you havent been drinking human blood. Im proud of you, Stefan. "

"Thanks," I murmured. I knew she wouldnt be proud of me if I told her about the conversation Callie and I had shared. Shed say that I was too impulsive, too na?ve, that Id made a huge mistake telling Callie my secret. Although I hadnttoldas much asconfirmedher remarkably accurate suspicions.

"Here we are," Lexi said, stopping at a nondescript wooden door on Dauphine Street. She took a slim metal hook from her pocket and jiggled it in the lock of the front door. After a moment, it clicked open.

"And now, the shop is open for business. " Lexi spread her hands wide, perching on a stiff leather ottoman. "Take your pick. "

A dozen mannequins with puffed-out chests held court in the store. One in a tweed jacket lifted its arm in a wave, while another in a sailors cap had a hand above its eyes, as though staring straight out to sea. Bolts of fine fabrics were propped up against the back wall, and a row of cuff-links glistened under glass. Stacks of ready-made shirts kept silent watch over the darkened shop, and a few cravats spilled out of a drawer.

Lexi crossed her ankles beneath her skirts and gazed at me, a look of pride on her face as I pulled a camel-hair coat off a mannequin and draped it around my shoulders.

I stood stiffly, waiting for approval, as I had done when my mother had taken me shopping.

"Well, I cant tell when you stand there as wooden as a mannequin. Walk around a bit. See what you think," Lexi said with an impatient wave of her hand.

I rolled my eyes but took a turn around the room, acting like the rich men Callie and Id seen at the burlesque show. I held out my hand to Lexi with a flourish. "Care to dance?" I said in an exaggerated British accent.

Lexi shook her head, amusement evident in her eyes.

"Okay, I get it. Its a little too dandy. How about that one?" She angled her chin at a mannequin in black trousers and a gray coat with red piping. I removed my jacket and pulled the coat around my shoulders.

Lexi nodded, her eyes taking on a faraway look.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"My brother," she said.

I thought of the boy in the portrait, his eyes so much like Lexis. "What about him?"

Lexi picked up a silk cravat and laced it between her fingers. She didnt look at me as she spoke. "After our parents died, I started taking walks with a boy who was a vampire. He asked if I wanted to live forever. And of course I did, because I was young, and whowouldn'twant to always be young and beautiful? Also, if I turned, it meant Id never have to leave Colin. Hed already lost so much, and I thought, well, at least he could know that hed never lose me. "

"Was Colin a vampire?"

Lexi pulled the cravat through her fingers and cracked it like a whip. "Id never do that to someone I loved. "

The image of me forcing Damon to drink from Alice, the barmaid in the tavern back home, flashed through my mind. I looked down, not wanting Lexi to sense what Id done to someone I loved. "So what happened?"

"People got suspicious. I didnt know then how careful we needed to be. My brother was growing up, and I was staying the same. People wondered. And there was a siege, and our house was torched. And the irony is, I escaped and Colin didnt. And he was the innocent one. He was only sixteen. "