To Be Or Not To Be » Stefan Salvatore

Chapter 28 - The Cost of Happiness

Paranoia was nothing new to Skye. It had clung to her ever since she turned, a shadow she couldn't shake. Guilt had a way of twisting the mind, feeding her worst instincts, making every flicker of movement a threat, every silence a warning.

Most of the time, the danger was imaginary—a phantom of her own making.

This time, though, she knew better.

After her phone call with Rebekah, the reality of her situation had set in like a vice around her ribs. Silas knew she had the cure. He could come for her whenever he wanted. And there was very little she could do to stop him.

The Salvatore Boarding House was the obvious choice for safety, but the thought of facing Stefan in this state—barely keeping it together—made her stomach twist. She needed to be somewhere defensible, somewhere she could think.

That left her with few options.

In the end, she chose Rebekah's house, slipping inside before calling Elijah to explain everything. Every second alone felt like an eternity, her cobalt gaze darting to every sound, every shift of shadow.

Silas could be anywhere.

He could be anyone.

By the time her siblings arrived, the knots in her stomach hadn't loosened. If anything, they tightened. Silas had already taken Rebekah's face once—he could do it again. The knowledge sat heavy in her bones, a reminder that even surrounded by family, she wasn't truly safe.

She ran them through a series of security questions, knowing full well it was pointless. If Silas had already picked her mind apart, he'd have the answers ready. But she needed to do something, anything, to stop the unease from swallowing her whole.

Even Rebekah set aside her anger to focus on the bigger threat.

In the end, they agreed: she had to keep up appearances. Act normal. Stay inside. There weren't enough of them to watch her every second, and the Salvatore house, for all its faults, had one advantage—she'd rarely be alone.

Skye had fought the idea. The last thing she needed was to crack under pressure and spill everything to Stefan. But in the end, even she had to admit it was the best option.

Which was how she ended up here, seated in the Salvatore parlor, watching the brothers toss a football back and forth like they didn't have a starving, emotionless vampire locked in their basement.

The days had crawled by, slow and suffocating. She tried to act normal, but it was obvious to anyone paying attention that she was on edge.

Stefan noticed.

He assumed it was Elena.

She let him believe that.

"She's the calmest desiccating vampire I've ever seen. I remember when you starved me down there for three days. I would've wept at your feet for an orange peel," Damon quipped, passing the ball to Stefan.

His brother's reply was quick. "She's not gonna beg for blood. Begging means desperation, emotion. She's still in the no-humanity zone."

Skye should've been focusing on Elena. Finding a way to help her. But right now, the doppelgänger was the least of her concerns.

Still, she forced herself to ask, if only for Stefan's sake.

"It's been days. How hungry does she have to be?"

"A lot hungrier than she is now, apparently," Stefan answered, though his eyes lingered on her longer than they should have. He was watching her again, worrying. She could see it in the way his brows knit together, the way his grip on the football tightened.