That Voodoo You Do
"Stefan, where are we going?" Elena's voice bordered on a whine, but seeing as she was being dragged against her will towards Stefan's car when she should have been in school, it was hardly any wonder. "I need to get back to class, where are you taking me?"
Stefan began to smile. "Lighten up will you? You are perfectly safe. You are under my protection, remember?" He dragged her through the car lot by the hand. She had to trot to keep up with him.
"It's not me I am worried about." She muttered, thinking what Damon would do to Stefan if he found out about her 'abduction'. "Well if I am being kidnapped, can you at least tell me where we are going?" She said as he assisted her into the car cop style.
"And where would be the fun in that?" Stefan said as he jogged around to the driver's side. "Don't worry, I'll have you back at school this time next week."
"You are joking me?"
"If you like." He said grinning. He got in the car and started the engine.
"New Orleans? Seriously? Stefan you have to be kidding. Let's turn back, this joke has gone too far!"
"Come on now, it's New Orleans during Mardi Gras! Lighten up, we are gonna have fun."
Elena's face darkened. "I doubt it." She said folding her arms over her chest and scowling. "You know Damon's gonna come and look for me, don't you?"
"Hmm, maybe, except you sent him that text this morning saying not to and that you and a friend were going away for a few days and not to worry."
"He's not gonna fall for that. He'll know it's you and that you are up to something." She muttered. She felt for her phone and realized without much surprise, that it was gone.
"Guess my phone was stolen too, wasn't it?" She said.
"You'll get it back. Look stop worrying. Mystic Falls is just so dull, I was bored with nothing to do all day except go to class."
"I don't suppose there is much point in me trying to lose you in the crowd is there?" She said angrily. Stefan looked at her and smirked.
"Nope."
Elena sulked in silence for a few minutes, watching the world pass by her window. As Stefan turned off the interstate and took the route marked for NOLA, the traffic began to back up.
"Seriously though, Stefan. Mardi Gras? I mean all those boozed up frat boys and girls flashing... Don't you think we have grown out of that? Especially at your age."
Stefan put a hand on his heart in mock pain. "Ooh, that stings Elena. You know you can be very hurtful some times." As the traffic ground entirely to a halt, Elena cast him a look as though to say 'see?'. Only tourists drove in to New Orleans the day before Mardi Gras.
"Relax, we are not following the crowd."
She frowned. "We aren't?"
"Nope. We are turning off here."
Stefan came off the road and almost immediately turned into a tiny lane, which looked for all intents and purposes like it lead to the middle of nowhere. Elena frowned.
As they drove, it became clear that they were heading into a massive cemetery. An ancient one. Tombstones leaned like snaggled teeth out of ill-kept grounds and they were watched over by weeping angels forever frozen in their moment of grief.
"Don't you read Anne Rice novels?" Stefan said, "This is where the vampires live." He said dramatically and then laughed.
Elena felt confused and somewhat nervous, but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of asking any further questions.
Stefan's car passed through the cemetery gates, which consisted of two sad looking concrete plinths that stood either side of the dilapidated entrance. A sign above the gate in wrought iron said "AL TORE CEM TE". She wondered what it was supposed to say.
Even for Stefan's Porsche, which wasn't the widest of cars, the path seemed to get dangerously narrow. Grass grew out of the asphalt and split it, so the road was bumpy. Stefan took it slow, giving Elena time to appreciate the view of the large tombs that seemed to be held together only by the ivy that grew over them.
She shivered without feeling cold. Stefan noticed but said nothing.
"Here we are." He said eventually. Elena had been so busy trying to figure out how far the cemetery stretched (at least a half mile in each direction she estimated), that she had failed to notice where he had driven her. Almost out of the other side of the cemetery and framed by red maple trees, was a once beautiful Antebellum house. Now the house was sadly in a state of disrepair; the pale blue paintwork and white fretwork of the delicate balustrades was peeling badly. On the upper level, pigeons flew in and out of a hole in the roof tile. The house had a couple of smashed and boarded-up windows. The facia of it was also covered in ivy - so much so, that when Elena went to enter the door, Stefan had to lift it up to create a gap for her to duck through.
The front door of the house was opened by a giant, rusted, iron key - the kind that Elena thought only existed in story books. When they entered the large, dusty hallway, it was punctuated by shafts of light from the large floor to ceiling windows that she had seen from the outside. The windows were partially shuttered, but those too had fallen into disrepair and shutters lay broken on the floor. Dust particles swirled in the shafts of light, and the whole room had a smell of dry rot.
Elena looked around warily, she pushed her hands in her skirt pockets, feeling unsettled by the place. Stefan strode into the house like he owned it and called out. Obviously he had been invited in before.
"Mim, where are you? Don't you have a hug for your favorite vampire?"
Elena heard a low and throaty chuckle from somewhere deep in the belly of the house. A torn and faded rag that acted as a curtain and which was nailed to an interior door frame was pushed aside, and a beautiful coffee-skinned woman entered the room. She wore sandals, a long gauzy skirt and a headscarf which kept her dreadlocks piled high on her head. She had another scarf slung around her hips, this one had silver discs on the hem. It was partially covered by an apron, which she dried her hands on. First appearances lead Elena to believe she could be around the same age as her, but it was hard to say. The woman tinkled as she walked, as her skirt was also hemmed by silver bells and her forearms covered in many bangles. Sewn into her hair were silver coins and cowrie shells. The woman clearly didn't realize she had a smudge of flour on her cheek.
When she saw Stefan she opened her arms wide.
"Stefano, my boy, my boy!" She said with great warmth. Stefan swept her into his arms and made a great show of spinning her around, making her laugh that same deep, warm, belly laugh again. When he put her down she put both her hands on his face and kissed him on the lips - being none too shy about it either. She then pulled back, put her balled fists on her hips and gave him a long, disapproving look. "You should be ashame'. You don't come no more."
Stefan brushed the flour off her face affectionately. "Mim, sweetheart, you know you are always first in my heart." Mim gave him a gentle cuff as if too tell him off for his false flattery. He kissed her forehead. Her smile became a frown as she looked into his eyes.
"Stefano, you rippin' again?" She said managing to sound both jaded and angry. Stefan pulled her hands away from his face. He didn't answer. "You an' I - we gonna have a long talk ma boy." She said sucking in cheeks and tutting.
Finally she seemed to notice Elena, who was lurking in the shadows trying not to interrupt. Mim's face turned back to Stefan with wide eyes. "She the one?" She asked excitedly. He nodded curtly. "Oooh, Stefano, elle est très belle! Très belle!"
Stefan turned to face Elena and his eyes traveled over her. She couldn't read the meaning behind his expression.
Mim walked over to Elena and took her face in her hands, just as she had Stefan. Elena looked at her somewhat nervously. Close up, it was clear just how stunning Mim was, she had plump, curved lips the color of raspberry liqueur and pale hazel brown eyes, with the longest natural lashes Elena had ever seen. Even in this light, Elena could see that the woman's skin was flawless. She had just the perfect amount of blush to her cheeks. Her limbs were slender and toned and Elena could just about make out some intricate dark blue tattoos on her lower arms peeping out from under all the bangles.
"Miriam, meet Elena. Elena, meet Miriam. But everyone calls her Mim." Stefan said.
"Hello." Elena said, blushing as Mim still had hold of her face. The woman's long, cool fingers smelled of baking as they rested on Elena's cheeks. Elena felt like she was being examined and briefly wondered if she was coming up short.
"Pleasure." Mim said. The way the word tripped off her tongue made it sound twice as long as it was. "You 'ave some Louisiana Creole in you, no?" Mim asked her. Elena shook her head. Miriam removed her hands. "Hmm, surprised. I could 'ave sworn. Me, I'm pure French Creole. You don't see that no more."
She put her arm around Elena's shoulders and lead her towards the door she had entered from. "Come with me chile. Don' you worry none about Stefano - 'e has no manners. I look after you now. Hospitality Louisiana style!" She said laughing that deep throaty chuckle of hers.
Elena looked over her shoulder somewhat anxiously to Stefan, he was following behind them both smiling.
Through the other side of the door, the house was completely different, Elena wondered if she had stepped out of one house and into another. On this side of the fetid curtain, there was not a single sign of disrepair. In fact quite the opposite. It was a cosy, if slightly eccentric, charming home with stained plank floors and large round, welcoming kitchen table in the centre. The smell of decay was replaced by the smell of baking. Elena's mouth dropped open and although she quickly closed it again, Mim noticed. She began to chuckle.
"If a place look rundown, you don't get no kids to bother you none. I like a quiet life." Miriam explained. "They scared. That's the way I like it. Tranquille."
"Mim, shall I show Elena her room?" Stefan asked.
"Sure sure." She said with a wave of her hand. She turned her back and began slicing home-made bread.
Stefan took Elena up some rickety stairs at the back of the house and up to the second storey. The walls of the stairwell were covered in photographs. Sepia toned faces stared seriously towards the camera. Suddenly Elena paused.
"That's you and Damon!" She said, leaning forwards and looking closer at one of the images on the wall. "When was that taken?"
"Er, turn of the century I think. Last century I mean." Elena examined it. The boys were stood in front of this house, which was clearly in better repair back then.
"Come on." Stefan said, taking her hand and leading her away. "You're in here."
Elena looked around the small but relaxing room. She sat on the bed, which creaked, but was comfortable. It was covered in a patchwork quilt.
"Stefano! You hurry an' bring that girl down, she need to eat some." Mim called up the stairs.
Stefan raised his eyebrows at Elena, who smiled. Whatever hold Miriam had on him, it was clearly one that mattered to him.
"If you need to freshen up there's a bathroom down the hall. Come down when you are ready, or I'll get into trouble." He turned to leave, but she put a hand on his arm.
"Stefan, who is Miriam to you?"
"She was my slave." He said, he turned and left. Elena widened her eyes in shock and sat back down.
Mim fed her up on enough food to feed an army and also poured her and Stefan an odd tasting herbal tea. Which they both drank politely, even though it tasted like stale camomile.
"Stefano, get Elene ready." She instructed as she cleared plates. Elena turned to face Stefan with concern, he gave her a cold smile.
"She is ready, Mim."
"No no. Those clothes will not do. You go into my room, an' find a white dress. She wear that, and only that." She said.
Stefan took Elena by the hand and lead her upstairs again.
"Stefan, get me 'ready' for what? I don't like this." She complained. He ignored her and pulled her into Mim's room. "Is Mim a vampire? How can she have been your slave but still be alive. Stefan, what is going?" He ransacked the wardrobe until he found a little white Broderie Anglaise dress. It had spaghetti straps and came down just below her knee. "I'm not wearing that. I'm staying in my own clothes." Elena said with steely determination.
He stepped forwards and quite roughly undid her skirt and pushed it over her hips to the floor. She felt strangely naked. She complained vociferously, but she knew that she could not (and probably should not) try to stop Stefan doing what he wanted, because he was fast and strong and could hurt her. So stood there with tears in her eyes as she let him yank her t-shirt over her head. When he went to remove her bra, she stepped back, put her arms around herself and shook her head. "No, please don't... Stefan, don't." He looked into her eyes, and she remembered how cold he could be now. He pushed her arms away and unceremoniously undid her bra, pulled it from her shoulders and tossed it on the floor. He pulled down her panties next and she shivered as she tried to cover herself. He yanked the dress on over her head and than dragged her back downstairs.
"Please Stefan, tell me what's going on!"
He said nothing, and he took her through the house and down into a basement room which she had not seen before. Now she could hear voices, engaged in chatter.
The first room, felt like a reception space. It was painted a deep, dark red and had two old and sickly looking, dark green velvet couches that were almost threadbare. The walls here were covered in a collection of odd things, from stuffed animal heads to black framed pictures of Elvis and other random people she recognized, and some she didn't.
The voices she heard came from the room just beyond and there was also the sound of violent fluttering. She shook her head, suddenly she was feeling woozy.
At the door, Stefan knocked and waited to be called in. Since this room gave her the creeps, she almost welcomed being taken into the next one, but she also felt a growing fear inside her heart. Her hand shook in Stefan's, but he said no words to comfort her.
"Come." Invited a deep, male voice. "The priestess will see the seekers now."
"Don't take me in there. Please, Stefan!" She begged, pulling back away from him, but he just tightened his grip on her hand. He opened the door and the first thing she noticed was choking smoke.
This room was not painted. It was dark grey and gloomy, with peeling walls. It was filled with a number of older Creole men and women who were humming, chanting and clapping their hands in a rhythmic way.
She could see that one of the women was smoking a cigar, and one of the men was smoking an odd looking pipe both of which had created the choking smoke in this windowless room. In the corner of the room was a cage containing a chicken, which must have caused the flapping sound she had heard earlier. The bird was clearly in distress and kept trying to flap its wings despite the fact that it only buffeted the edges of its too-small cage.
Elena knew how it felt. Stefan dragged her into the centre of the room.
On the right hand side of the room was an altar. It was covered in partially melted, thick black candles, which provided the only light in the room. On the altar was a crucifix hung with a rosary, and beside that was a large, brightly depicted icon of Mary, her hands pressed together in prayer - her sad, doleful eyes cast to the sky. Beside those, were the oddest collection of things including a brass bell, tarot cards, cigarette packets and animal skulls. Each item seemed chosen very deliberately. The overall effect was a deeply unnerving mixture of old and new; the spiritual and the physical world.
But none of that got Elena's attention for more than the briefest of seconds, because the main thing that she could not take her eyes from was Mim. Mim was in knelt in front of the altar, but facing into the room. She was moving in a jerky, possessed-like fashion, her eyes rolled back so you could see the white of her eyes. An older man stood semi-crouching, semi-dancing beside her. In his hand he held a feather covered stick that looked like some kind of gnarled wand. He jabbed at Mim without actually touching her and as she gyrated, he shouted, chanted and sometimes sang. He appeared to be drawing down spirits which possessed her. The language he spoke seemed to be a combination of many, and Elena heard some words of French, Spanish, Arabic and many other things that Elena couldn't understand. She noticed the glint of a small but sharp, curved knife that Mim held in her hand. She kept drawing it through the air in front of her.
Elena was terrified. She pulled hard against Stefan's hand and her knees began to buckle. Stefan seemed to be struggling too, and appeared to be not in possession of his usual strength - but alas still strong enough to keep her where she did not want to be.
Stefan blinked his eyes slowly when he looked at her. A woman opened the chicken's cage and picked up the squawking, terrified bird by its feet, tipping it upside down and letting it flap, flutter and shriek. The chanting grew to a crescendo.
The bird was presented to Mim, whose hand rose, and she put her sickle knife to its throat. Elena fell to her knees, sobbing and pulling with all her might to be out of there, but she was being overcome by the smoke and the heaviness of her eyelids. Her heart pounded with fear. Mim slit the bird's throat and the last thing Elena remembered was the bird still flapping after death - its blood dripping onto the floor, the smoke, and being caught by numerous soft, doughy hands as she fell into unconsciousness.
It was black. Pitch black.
Elena sat up rapidly, her heart racing. She only knew that she was awake, and laying on a bed. Her fingers quickly told her that the bed she was sat on was covered in a patchwork quilt, and she breathed a sigh of relief. This was her room.
She was alone and terrified, but she knew she was unharmed. Whatever that hideous ritual had been about, it did not seem to have involved her physically. She ran a shaking hand through her matted hair and brushed her make-up away from her tear stained face.
She was about to get up when her door opened a crack. She saw the silhouette of a man and she slithered up the bed to get away from him, before she realized it was Stefan.
"Stay lying down. It will help." He said. "You'll feel dizzy for a while. Unfortunately you will recover less quickly than I." He came in and struck a match and lit the storm lantern by her bed. Apparently Mim didn't believe in electricity in every room.
"You let her drug me!" Elena said, shocked and horrified.
She hit his arm hard as he leaned over beside her to put the glass on her storm lantern. The room filled with a murky light. He turned the brass knob to increase the flame, and only then could he really see how scared and angry she was. He sat down beside her. Elena appeared to be so angry she couldn't speak. Instead she balled her fists and she rained down blows upon him, on his head and neck, shoulders and arm. She hit as hard as she could and he sat still and took it.
"It didn't work. I don't understand why, but it didn't work." He said glumly as she fell back onto her bum and glared at him, panting from her exertion.
"What didn't work? What foul thing did those people do to me?"
"Mim said she'd never seen it not work. Not ever." He said gloomily, almost to himself.
"WHAT?" Elena shouted at him impatiently. He looked at her and paused before he spoke. Her heart was racing, she had never been this angry at him ever before.
"The Unbinding."
"The what? What the hell is that, Stefan?"
"Miriam is a high priestess, but she is bound by a curse to never leave this house. Over the years, people came to her, sought her wisdom. She is much venerated in this city, in many places actually."
"I don't give a rat's ass! What did you ask her to do to me?"
"I told her that you would only be safe from Klaus if she could split my attachment from you, for good. Klaus knows how we feel about each other, he'll use that against you and me. He is already. The spell is called an Unbinding. I wanted you unbound from my soul, because our love is dangerous."
"Stefan you don't love me now, you feel nothing. Otherwise you couldn't have dragged me here against my will and given me up that hideous witch-doctor downstairs!" She shouted.
"She's a priestess, not a witch-doctor. Have some respect. Elena, I may have lost what made me human, but I know why Klaus is using me like this. This is self preservation - that's all. If I take away the one thing hold he knows he has over me, then I am no use to him anymore and neither are you. I have read my diaries. Every word in them is about how I feel about you. Even if I don't feel that way right now, I know that deep down I am connected to you." He looked down. "And it's more than that. I felt it when you had me locked in that basement - when you brought Lexi to me. You wanted to reach me. Why would you do that if you didn't still love me? You don't give up because you think deep down, I love you too. It's why you knew I would catch you when you fell. We are bound together you and I and I wanted that to stop for both our sakes."
Elena turned away and crossed her hands over her still thundering chest. She needed peace and quiet to think, but she had questions, hundreds and hundreds of them. She started with the main one.
"Why did Miriam say the ritual/spell, whatever, didn't work?"
He shrugged. "Honestly, she doesn't know why. She's been performing that ritual for over a hundred years and never has it failed. To tell you the truth, I think it scared her."
"Why didn't you tell me all this before? Why keep it from me if you thought it was so important we try this?"
"Because I knew Damon would never agree to it and that he would stop you. He and Mim have history you know. And not a good one. This whole thing would have ended in tears."
"If you haven't noticed, it has already." Elena remarked pointedly. He felt her silence and said nothing. He didn't feel even remotely guilty for her terror. The moment passed and she spoke again. "He'll be looking for me you know." They both knew Damon would be out of his mind trying to find out where she was.
Stefan nodded. "I know."
She became quiet for a moment. She felt a little calmer now she knew what was going on. The candle hissed and flared and drew her eye.
"Mim says we will probably dream tonight." Stefan said matter-of-factly.
"You told me vampires don't dream?" She turned back to face him, puzzled.
"I've had the same drugs as you today. They may affect me slightly differently, but they still affect me. And besides, we are dealing with forces here almost as old as this earth we walk on. How do you think Mim looks the way she does?"
"Stefan, why did you lie to me?" Elena asked quietly, her eyes searching his for the vampire she once knew.
"I didn't lie to you, Elena. I just didn't tell you what the plan was. Look, you should lay down and sleep it off. I'm just in the room next door if you need me. In the morning we can do whatever you like. It is still Mardi Gras you know." He said trying a half smile.
"I'm not exactly in the mood to party." Elena said sullenly.
He bowed his head, "I guess I will have to work on you then." He stood up to leave, but when he got to the door he turned back to face her. "Mim didn't know I hadn't told you anything about today, you know. She is very upset with me for making you angry at her."
"I'm not angry at her, Stefan. I'm angry at you." She said and with that she put out the candle and plunged her room into darkness.
She was stood in the graveyard, naked beneath her white dress. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. There was a low, ground-hugging mist that moved over the tombstones. The graveyard seemed to stretch alarming far and wide in every direction into the horizon. She knew she was lost and she felt deeply afraid.
Suddenly stepping out of the mist came the wildest, but most magnificent horse she had ever seen. It was a huge, fearsome stallion, that made her breath catch when she saw it. The almost mythical beast stood nervously nearby, flicking its ears and tossing its long, glossy mane. She stood very still, afraid that even the beat of her heart would scare it away. But the great ebony horse came slowly over to her as if drawn to her. It snickered lightly and blew air from its nostrils, and she slowly raised her hand and stroked its velvety nose. It pulled away, flicking its head back and buffeting her hand away as if unsure. But she was patient and kind, and in the end it calmed down and the flesh on its hind quarters stopped shuddering. In the end she was able to run her hand over its neck and back.
Even though it was clear that this was a wild, unbroken beast, Elena seemed to know that despite its huge size and intimidating presence, that it would let her ride it.
She looked the horse in its eye and it regarded her as though it understood her thoughts. She needed it now, she needed him to take her out of this endless graveyard and take her home. She took a deep breath, and put a foot onto a fallen tombstone and climbed up high onto the horse's back. The beast took a side step, but it didn't throw her. She wove her hand through its mane to hold on. To sit and grip meant her dress was hitched up, and she was aware that she could feel the hide of beast on every bit of her naked skin. She leaned forwards and let her head rest against his neck, her own hair mingling with its inky black mane. She pulled her feet back up onto its back and let her arms hug its neck. The horse began to walk slowly forwards, and holding its warm, muscled flesh, she felt completely safe.
Eventually she began to hear a sound. It was her name being called. "Elena! Elena!" Over and over again. The horse continued on and she moved so she was sat upright, listening for which direction the calling was coming from. It was getting closer.
"Elena. Where are you?" It was a voice she knew, her heart fluttered. Stefan!
Suddenly the voice was right in front of her. The wild horse stopped and pawed at the earth beneath its feet. She slid off his back to the ground, but she wouldn't let him go. She held on by curling her fingers through its silken mane.
"Stefan?" She called out uncertainly.
"Elena!" He said stepping suddenly out of the mist. She felt the stallion's mane pull out of her fingers, and he reared up, his muscled flanks glorious in the mist. She felt the arms of Stefan around her pulling her back and out of harms way.
"No!" She said, "Don't scare him, he's my friend!" But it was too late. Even though she stretched her arms towards the horse, the beast flared his eyes and galloped away. She dropped her arms and felt Stefan nuzzle her cheek.
"I lost you." He said. "How could I be so negligent?" He let her go and she turned to face him. Suddenly, seeing him here, out in the mist looking for her, barefoot, she realized how scared she had been without him. She flung herself into his waiting arms and he held her tight and stroked her back and whispered to her how much he loved and needed her and had been worried for her safety. As she lay her head against his throat she could feel a pulse, and she realized with a sudden shock that he was human. She pulled back in shock and placed her hand on his chest. It was true - he had a heart beat.
He looked at her with concern and covered her small hand with his own, gathering her fingers into his. "This is no place for you, my darling, I must get you out of this sodden air, or you will develop a fever." He swept her off her feet and into his arms. As he began to walk, she looked up at his handsome face and ran her fingers over his smooth skin. He looked down at her, his green eyes full of gratitude and love.
Suddenly she realized that they were no longer in the graveyard, but they were now inside a bedroom. His bedroom. He walked with her in his arms and placed her carefully down in the centre of the big, brass bed. She drew him down to her and kissed her. His lips were warm and soft, but he seemed to be holding back. His kiss was almost chaste.
She put an arm around his neck and looked up at him seductively. "Stefan, make love to me."
He looked at her as though her suggestion shocked him, "But we are not yet married!" He said. She gave him a bemused smile. That had never exactly stopped him before. He seemed to think for a while. "But that day will come soon. And you will be my beautiful bride. The most beautiful this place has ever seen." He stroked her face.
"Is that a proposal?" Elena said, feeling a little lost in this conversation. He laughed and brushed the back of his warm fingers over her clavicle and across her shoulder, slipping off one of her dress straps.
"Must there be another? Did I not do it right the first time round?" She looked a little confused, as he leaned down to brush a gentle kiss over her lips. Quickly a smile returned to his face and he slipped his suspenders off his shoulders and undid the remaining buttons on his shirt. She marvelled at his slender, toned body, as he tossed his shirt on the floor. He climbed over her on the bed and leaned down and kissed her tenderly. She slipped both of her arms around his neck and held him above her.
"I was so scared without you. I thought I would be lost forever." She said letting her nose touch his.
"I don't know how you got away from me, but I won't let it happen ever again." He replied sincerely.
She kissed him lightly and he moved down the bed and slipped up her white dress until is was gathered above her hips. The way he looked at her was as though he had never seen her before. He dipped down and began to kiss her thighs, he was trembling with excitement. He gently opened her legs, and he tentatively kissed above her pubic line, then let his tongue trail down until it slipped between her folds. She made a soft moan, which seemed to make him grow in confidence. His tongue moved in small circles across her clitoris and she curled her fingers into the bed sheet beneath her.
"Harder..." She said with laboured breath.
He responded, becoming more bold. He slipped his thumb inside of her as he licked and she responded with a groan of appreciation.
Now they were here in bed together, she realized how much she had missed his touch. Her body ached from wanting him as he knew her like no other. What made him special, was that when he made love to her, he gave her his absolute complete and undivided attention. He was never just thinking of when he get to have his fun. He watched her, and responded to her every movement, and her reaction to his touch was what turned him on. The room could be burning down around them, but the only thing he would notice would be the way her lips parted as she breathed.
His free hand ran under her dress and grasped at her breast, making her arch her back. She reached above her head and gripped the brass bedstead with both hands. Stefan's tongue lapped at her wetness, and began to move his fingers inside her and rub her with his thumb. She panted lightly, moving her hips in time to his rhythm. He smiled and kissed her sensitive thighs and a shiver of desire passed right through her. Finally he sucked at her clitoris, and she let herself completely give in to the sensation. She came, jolting and gripping the bedstead until her knuckles went white. Stefan lapped at her wetness and then he undid his breeches, quickly threw them off and then slid himself inside her.
He kissed her as he rocked inside her, and she pushed back against him, making her orgasm continue in sweet waves. She sighed into his ear with her arms around his neck. He smiled and pushed harder, until the bed creaked its protest and she cried out in a considerably unladylike manner. She crested again and she threw her head back and he kissed her exposed throat, his lips resting on the spot of her pulse as he came shuddering into her.
"Holy fuck!" Elena said as she woke up, and scrabbled to sit upright. She was moist between her legs and her body was damp with perspiration. She knew she had been asleep, but she had never had a dream like it. It was as though every sight, scent and sound were completely real. She got out of the bed and wished she had her own clothes, but they were probably still in heap on the floor in Mim's room. She needed to get the bathroom and splash some water on face and other places too. She had never had a dream before where she had actually come. She was shaking with embarrassment as she opened her bedroom door. She walked into the dark corridor brandishing her storm lantern, and felt caught out when Stefan opened his door. She blushed and looked to her feet. He looked uncomfortable too.
"I heard you get up, I er, just wanted to check you are alright." He said.
"I'm fine." She said over-brightly.
"Good good. I guess I will go back to bed then." He began to close the door when she stopped him.
"Stefan..."
"Yes?"
"Did you, um, dream at all?"
"Did you?"
"I asked you first." She said, blushing once more and looking at her feet again. He looked at her standing there - she was lovely in the candle light. He walked out of his doorway and went over to her, lifted her chin with a gentle hand.
"My dream was as beautiful as you are. But it was only a dream." He let go of her chin, leaving her puzzled. "Goodnight, Elena." He said before turning around and walking back into his room.
She went into the bathroom and found that Mim had laid out fresh towels and soap. She would have to persuade Stefan to buy her some other toiletries and other bits and pieces in the morning if he really wouldn't take her home again. She wondered if he would want to make Miriam try the unbinding again? Or whether he would ask her to try something else?
She washed her face in cold water, and splashed some quickly between her legs. She dried herself and thought about Stefan's words to her. 'But it was only a dream.' What the heck did that mean? Did he want it to be more? Did he think she had controlled the way it had gone? She had to know. She marched out of the bathroom with her lantern in her hand and knocked on Stefan's door.
He told her to come in, and so she entered. She noticed with shock that it was the room from the dream. Everything about it was exactly the same. Stefan lay in the brass bed leaning on his arms watching her enter.
"So, now you know." He said.
"You shared my dream. How is that even possible?" She sat down beside him on the edge of the bed, blushing slightly when she thought of what she had been dreaming of doing in it only minutes before.
"Vampires can enter dreams. But Miriam did something so when I dreamt, it was eighteen thirty one and I was still human and somehow you and I were engaged to be married."
"Is that why you said all that stuff about another proposal?"
He nodded.
"So it wasn't just me controlling it. We both were."
He didn't answer. She shivered. He shifted over and pulled back the cover and offered for her to get in. When she hesitated he said, "Just for warmth. Nothing more, I promise." She was actually rather grateful for the offer and so she got under the covers next to him and pulled the quilt up over her shoulder. He tucked her in and scooched down so he was at her eye-line, both of them lying on their sides facing each other.
"Stefan, I still don't really understand what has gone on here today." She admitted.
"To be honest, nor do I. But I think the drugs showed us what we really wanted. Or something like that anyway." His eyes examined hers, sensitive to the possibility that fear, disgust or hatred may show there. But she showed none of those things.
She sighed. "I don't know how the drugs know what I want, when I don't even know what I want." As soon as she realized what she had said, she looked at him slightly panicked.
"I know you like him." Stefan said slowly. She didn't speak - she didn't really need to. He knew all he would want to from her eyes. "I know how he gets under your skin, believe me I do." It was his turn to sigh. "Elena, listen to me. This thing with Klaus, I just want you to know that if I can't be with you, then Damon should be. He loves you and even though he's a bloody idiot sometimes, he'd never put you in harm's way. And he can be really quite protective, and I guess what I am trying to say, is that-"
"Stefan, will you stop trying to hand me over to your brother? It's you I want. It's always been you. Don't you understand that?" She placed her hand on his cheek and felt the cool skin, far from his heat in her dream. "It's not Klaus that scares me, it is the fact that you may never be the same man I fell in love with ever again, because the worse thing about all this, is that I have never stopped feeling the way I do about you. Not once." She leaned in to kiss him, and he pulled her in close.
They made love for real that night. It wasn't like it was in the dream and Elena felt a little guilty after, because it had been lust that had driven her and probably for him too. Stefan seemed to act like it was no big deal and so she followed his lead. In the morning he actually gave her her phone back, so she could call Damon.
"Get him to pick you up if you want. I won't force you to stay." Stefan said magnanimously.
But when Damon picked up the phone and berated her for not being in touch, she told him, "I'm staying in New Orleans with Stefan for a couple of days. It's Mardi Gras. Why don't you come here and join us if you want to and you're worried?"
Damon, who never could resist an opportunity for drinking and partying, was quick to arrive, and Mim gave him a room, despite the fact that they barely talked.
In the daylight hours, the boys tried to outdo each other by showing her fabulous sights. Jazz musicians that only came together to play during a full moon; a woman who had lived with dozens of uncaged snakes and considered herself a 'snake whisperer'; a church where a criminal on the run had buried his money before he was caught (it was still there - Elena grinned when she saw it with her own eyes); a blind man who read futures if you crossed his palm with real silver coins (Elena was too scared to do it, but Stefan did. He wouldn't tell them what the old man had told him, but he came out grinning)... the list went on and on. Five days passed in a flash and the nighttimes were filled with dancing and drinking and fun. She almost forgot about the world outside, and when it got to the weekend and Stefan suggested taking her home, she was almost reluctant.
They never spoke again of what happened in New Orleans, but she felt stronger because of it. She may need to wait for his humanity and his love to be returned, but she knew for certain now that he was what she wanted. If she had to wait, then she would wait forever.