She shook her head.
"I wouldn't go that far. They were more like biological copies. Some monsters can reproduce that way. It doesn't mean anything."
"Then why did you do it?"
She smiled faintly.
"Who knows? I was probably just lonely."
Wendy stood, brushing sand and bone dust from her clothes. The wind caught her hair again, and for a moment she looked less like a monster and more like something fragile.
"I won't try to force myself on you again," she said. "After that… I think we're even."
She hesitated.
"I forgive you."
Damon frowned.
"You forgive me? I don't understand."
She looked down at him and shook her head.
"Yeah. I figured you wouldn't. You're too immature to understand forgiveness. It's hard to let go. It's difficult to forgive. It's easy to hate. Easy to want revenge. Even if I got everything I wanted, I wouldn't be happy. I'm setting myself free."
"Forgiveness…" Damon muttered.
The word felt foreign in his mouth.
