Surprise crossed Damon’s face. “With Cora? Was that your plan?” he asked accusingly.
“No. I don’t know where I’m going. I’ll take whatever ship comes. Africa? Australia?”
“Are you sure? Because Europe is ours for the taking. We could have parties and balls and marry princesses from the Continent. We’d ensure that the Salvatore name would matter. That’s my plan. Come join me.”
I shook my head. For a split second, Damon looked disappointed. But it quickly passed.
“Probably for the best,” Damon said, pressing his lips into a straight line. “I wouldn’t want you cramping my style.”
I held out my hand for Damon to shake, but he ignored the gesture.
“Maybe in 1913,” I teased. Damon jammed his hands in his pocket and turned away without responding.
I watched his figure retreat down the pier, and then, when he was only a speck in the distance, I lifted my eyes to the horizon. The sun was sinking slowly. I glanced at the ships rocking in the sea, tr
ying to decide which one to take.
My stomach rumbled, but I ignored it. There would be plenty of rats aboard whatever steamer I chose. I could live on rodents. It would be penance, and it would feel good after so much temptation. I’d taken money from the house, so I wouldn’t have to worry about paying my fare. I wouldn’t need to rely on compulsion. I wanted to start my next chapter with a clean slate. I would live a simple, and welcome, existence.
Cora’s steamer lurched away, chugging toward the horizon. People on the deck blew kisses at the crowds that had congregated on the dock to wave good-bye. I tried to make out Cora, but I couldn’t see her. I waved, still, bidding farewell to this chapter of my life as much as I was to Cora.
And then, once the ship had disappeared beyond the horizon, I turned and walked toward town, shoulders squared, head up—just another man seeking a new life far away.
EPILOGUE
In one of my schoolbooks there was a painting called The Fountain of Youth, an Edenic image of young, beautiful people in the middle of an endless party. As a child, I’d glanced at it again and again, enchanted by the idea of immortality.
Now I knew better. Immortality wasn’t idyllic or enchanting. But it was powerful.
If I had to live forever, I had to make it count. And that was why I needed to get as far away as I could from temptation—and from Damon.
So that’s why I boarded a ship bound for New Zealand. I had no idea if I’d stay for a month, a year, or a century, and I liked it that way. I liked not needing a plan. I liked only depending on myself. And I liked the way it was so easy to slip into conversation with a stranger and no longer feel like I was hiding a horrible secret.
I was Stefan Salvatore.
I still craved blood. The desire was relentless, all-consuming, a second heartbeat pounding away in the center of my being. I wondered what it would feel like if I could just give in to my dark side, like Damon. I wondered what would have happened if Lady Alice hadn’t come and saved both of us. When it mattered, in that final moment between life and death, would I have had the self-control to break the compulsion and pull myself off him?
I didn’t think so.
And I vowed that for the rest of eternity, I’d never be in the position to find out.
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THE HUNTERS VOL. 2: MOONSONG
1
Dear Diary,
I’m so scared.
My heart is pounding, my mouth is dry, and my hands are shaking. I’ve faced so much and survived: vampires, werewolves, phantoms. Things I never imagined were real. And now I’m terrified. Why?
Simply because I’m leaving home.
And I know that it’s completely, insanely ridiculous. I’m barely leaving home, really. I’m going to college, only a few hours’ drive from this darling house where I’ve lived since I was a baby. No, I’m not going to start crying again. I’ll be sharing a room with Bonnie and Meredith, my two best friends in the whole world. In the same dorm, only a couple of floors away, will be my beloved Stefan. My other best friend, Matt, will be just a short walk across campus. Even Damon will be in an apartment in the town nearby.