The Hunters: Destiny Rising

Concentrating, Stefan carefully knotted his tie. He looked, he knew, sleek and elegant in his best suit, a good match for lovely, golden Elena.

He'd made reservations at the nicest restaurant in town for a welcome-back dinner from her visit to Fell's Church to see Aunt Judith and Margaret. Klaus was dead; Damon was saved. Just for once, there was time for Elena to be a college girl, have fun without doom hanging over her.

So: French food. Roses on the table. A night of forgetting their pasts and instead enjoying the present together, like any couple in love. He ran down the two flights of stairs between their rooms, feeling light with happiness.

Elena's door was ajar. He tapped on it lightly, then pushed it inward, expecting to see Meredith and Bonnie bustling around Elena, helping her get ready for their big night.

Instead, the room was lit with candles, hundreds of tiny flames reflecting from the windows and mirrors to create a dazzling, glimmering play of light. Meredith and Bonnie were nowhere in sight and even their stuff seemed to have disappeared. The air was full of sweet scents, and Stefan saw scattered flowers among the candles: orchids and gardenias, orange blossoms and asters. In the language of flowers, all symbols of love in its many forms.

In the middle of the room stood Elena, dressed in a simple white sundress with lace detailing, waiting for him. He didn't think he had ever seen her look more beautiful. Her creamy skin, touched with just the faintest wash of pink, her jewel-blue eyes, her golden hair, all caught the light of the candle flames, shining as if she were an angel. But most beautiful of all were not her features but the look of pure, open love on her face. When her gaze met Stefan's, hers was full of fierce joy.

"Stefan," she said quietly. "I finally know what our future will look like."

Stepping forward into the room, Stefan came straight to her. However Elena saw their future, he would be there beside her, without question. He had learned long ago that his happiness, his life, was intimately tied to this one human girl, this one girl in all the world. He would go anywhere she wanted him to.

Elena took his hand and clasped it. "I love you, Stefan," she said. "That's the most important thing. I need to make sure you know it, because I haven't always treated you as well as I should have."

Stefan's voice caught in his throat, but he smiled at her. "I love you, too," he managed to say. "Always, always, always."

"The first time I saw you - remember that? Back outside the main office in high school - you just brushed past me without even looking. Right then, I decided that I was going to have you, that you were going to fall in love with me. No boy was going to treat me like that." Elena smiled a wry, self-deprecating smile. "But then you saved me from Tyler, and you were so sad and noble and good. I wanted to protect you, the way you'd protected me. And when we kissed, the whole world fell away."

Stefan made a soft sound, remembering, and his hand turned in Elena's grasp, twining their fingers together.

"You've saved me so many times and in so many ways, Stefan," Elena went on, "and I've saved you. We've plotted and planned together, we've fought and defeated all our enemies. There isn't anyone who loves me the way you do, and I could never love anyone else as much as I love you. I know what I want now. I want to be with you forever."

She let go of Stefan's hand and reached for something on the desk beside her that he hadn't noticed before. It was a silver goblet, intricately worked with threads of gold and set with jewels, a precious and beautiful item. The goblet was full of what looked like pure, clear water. Except the water was glowing with a shining light. He glanced up at Elena in sudden comprehension, and she nodded.

"The water from the Fountain of Eternal Youth and Life," she said solemnly. "I've always known that the day would come when I would drink it. I don't want to live, or die, without you. There's enough left for the others, if they want it someday. They might not. I don't know if I'd want forever, if it wasn't forever with you. I can't - " Her voice broke. "I can't imagine ever leaving you behind. But I had to wait until I was ready, until I was the person I wanted to be for the rest of forever. And now I know who I am." Elena raised the goblet to Stefan. "If . . . if you'll have me, Stefan, if you'll have me forever, I want to spend it with you."

Stefan's heart was overflowing, and he felt a hot tear run down his cheek. He had spent so long in the darkness alone, so long as a monster. And then this creature of life and light had found him, and he hadn't been alone anymore.

"Yes," he said joyfully, "Elena, all I want out of forever is you."

Elena raised the goblet and drank deeply, and then turned a happy, laughing face up to meet Stefan's kiss. Her joy resonated through him as their lips connected, and he sent his own back to her. Forever, they both felt, forever.

Stefan clung to her, almost overwhelmed. After more than five hundred years lost and wandering, he realized, he finally felt he was home for good.