LOGINDamon moved without thinking.They had been watching the carnage in stunned silence, but the moment he saw Lucia leap, something ancient and vicious surged through him. He launched himself forward, unleashing all his Alpha power as he intercepted Lucia in the air.They collided with thunderous force, and Lucia crashed into him snarling and slashing with her powerful claws. Damon twisted, taking the impact on his shoulder and driving her hard into the ground.She howled in fury. “YOU SHOULD BE DEAD!”Damon’s eyes burned with hatred as he rose over her. “I’ve heard that more times than I can count, sweetheart.”He threw her aside just as Elena turned to see them. The world seemed to stop.She came to a complete stop, shocked to see Damon alive and fighting in his wolf form. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. How was it even possible? She had seen him die…she had taken away and left him in the care of Mara and Pascal. But they were all here
Damon blinked rapidly, still disoriented as his eyes flickered between them. “Why does it feel like I’ve been torn apart and stitched back together?” he said weakly. “And why are you both crying?”Mara let out a shaky laugh through her tears. “Because you died, you idiot.”“I…what?”“You died,” Pascal repeated softly. “Elena said you died in a gas chamber. Elias.”Memory came rushing into Damon all at once and he remembered all the horror in that dreadful chamber…Elena screaming his name in despair. The burning in his lungs. The darkness bearing down on him.His hand flew to his chest immediately. “Elena.”Mara’s face crumpled again. “She thought you were gone. She…she snapped, Damon. Broke out. Took your body and ran.”“Then why am I still alive,” he asked, looking at all of them in confusion.“Because she brought you back,” Mara said, looking at the old seer.The old seer smiled at Damon, then shook her head slowly. “It wasn't just me, dear
The clearing felt impossibly empty in her absence.Mara collapsed fully now, curling around Damon’s body as if she could shield him from the world. Her sobs were quieter now, but no less devastating.“I never thanked him,” she whispered brokenly. “I never said it out loud. He kept me with him from the very first day. Protected me and always trusted me. And I…” Her voice cracked. “I never even told him how much that meant to me.”Pascal sat heavily beside her, staring at Damon’s face as if memorizing every line.“He walked into death without blinking,” Pascal said softly. “Not for glory. Not for power. For her. For his child. For people who had nothing left to give him.”His face hardened again. “That kind of courage doesn’t die easily.”The old blind seer listened in silence, her head tilted slightly, as if hearing something they couldn't in their words.Finally, she spoke.“Do you wish him back?”Mara’s head snapped up, eyes wild. “What?”
But the gas had finally reached his face.His body convulsed violently, muscles seizing as he gasped for air that would not come. His restraints groaned as he fought instinctively, his Alpha instincts screaming at him to survive.“Elena,” he forced out, voice barely audible now. “Live. For me. For our child.”She pressed her forehead to the glass, sobbing uncontrollably. “I love you,” she whispered desperately. “I love you. Please don’t leave me.”Damon’s eyes never left her.Even as the poison overtook him.His struggles gradually slowed down, while his breaths became erratic, then stuttered altogether. His head slumped forward, chin dropping to his chest as the last of his strength abandoned him.A long, horrible silence followed as the vents closed and the gas slowly began to clear.Damon Grey went silent forever.“No,” Elena whispered as she looked at him in disbelief. It couldn't be…Damon was really gone.Her heart thundered violentl
Her face was pale, and her lips were trembling as she stared at him. Horror seemed to follow every word Elias spoke, and she shook her head again and again, keeping her hands pressed to the glass as the tears continued streaking down her cheeks.“No,” she whispered. “No…please…”Elias turned toward her at last, studying her as if she were a fascinating specimen. His smile softened…not with kindness, but with devilish possession.“You see,” he said calmly, “this is where you misunderstood me, Damon. Elena was never the collateral.”He gestured vaguely in her direction.“She is the actual prize here.”Damon’s heart slammed violently against his ribs.“What?” he rasped.Elias clasped his hands behind his back, pacing slowly between the two cages like a curator admiring his exhibits. “Her strength alone is remarkable…she is blessed, you know. A rare specimen of wolves that I have never seen before. I mean think about it…Killing an Abomination without
Elias’s voice dropped, now completely stripped of all the pretense. “Because I want you to suffer, Damon. Slowly…Just like I've suffered all these years. Because killing you is the only thing that will ever balance the scales for my dear Anna.”Damon remembered that horrible night…the night he had lost control and taken an innocent life. But he had been young then, battling the burdens that came with Adolescence.“Do you really think my death will give you the peace you need?” Damon asked quietly.“No,” Elias replied honestly. “But it will give me some level of satisfaction.”Damon closed his eyes for a brief moment and thought about Elena. He thought about her stubbornness, her strength, her tears in the forest. The way she had looked at him when she finally let herself break. The child she carried. The future she still deserved.When he opened his eyes again, the decision was already made.“I’ll do it,” he said.Lucia was taken aback by the decisio







