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be tired or sad or frightened without being able to think of this feeling and that it

would uphold her for the rest of her life.

At last they sank down together on the sheets, comforting each other in equal

measure; exchanging sweet, warm kisses. With each kiss, Elena felt the outside

world and all its horrors drift farther and farther away. How could anything be wrong

when she herself felt that heaven was near? Matt and Meredith, Damon and

Bonnie would surely all be safe and happy too. Meanwhile, every kiss brought her

closer to paradise, and she knew Stefan felt the same way. They were so happy

together that Elena knew that soon the entire universe would echo with their own

joy, which overflowed like pure light and transformed everything it touched.

Bonnie woke and realized she had only been unconscious for a few minutes. She

began to shiver, and once she started she couldn’t seem to stop. She felt a wave

of heat envelop her, and she knew that Damon was trying to warm her, but still the

trembling wouldn’t go away.

“What’s wrong?” Damon asked, and his voice was different from usual.

“I don’t know,” Bonnie said. She didn’t. “Maybe it’s because they kept starting to

throw me out the window. I wasn’t going to scream about that,” she added hastily, in

case he assumed she would. “But then when they talked about torturing me—”

She felt a sort of spasm go through Damon. He was holding her too hard.

“Torturing you! They threatened you with that?”

“Yes, because, you know, Misao’s star ball was gone. They knew that it had been

poured out; I didn’t tell them that. But I had to tell them that it was my fault that the

last half got poured out, and then they got mad at me. Oh! Damon, you’re hurting

me!”

“So it was your fault it got poured out, was it?”

“Well, I figure it was. You couldn’t have done it if I hadn’t gotten drunk, and—whwhat’s

wrong, Damon? Are you mad too?” He really was holding her so that she

really couldn’t breathe.

Slowly, she felt his arms loosen a little. “A word of advice, little redbird. When

people are threatening to torture and kill you, it might be more—expedient—to tell

them that it’s someone else’s fault. Especially if that happens to be the truth.”

“I know that!” Bonnie said indignantly. “But they were going to kill me anyway. If

I’d told about you, they’d’ve hurt you, too.”

Damon pulled her roughly back now, so that she had to look him in the face.

Bonnie could also feel the delicate touch of a telepathic mind probe. She didn’t

resist; she was too busy wondering why he had plum-colored shadows under his

eyes. Then he shook her a little, and she stopped wondering.

“Don’t you understand even the basics of self-preservation?” he said, and she

thought he looked angry again. He was certainly different from any other time that

she’d seen him—except once, she thought, and that was when Elena had been

“Disciplined” for saving Lady Ulma’s life, back when Ulma had been a slave. He’d

had the same expression then, so menacing that even Meredith had been

frightened of him, and yet so filled with guilt that Bonnie had longed to comfort him.

But there had to be some other reason, Bonnie’s mind told her. Because you’re

not Elena, and he’s never going to treat you the way he treats Elena. A vision of the

brown room rose before her, and she felt certain that he would never have put

Elena there. Elena wouldn’t have let him, for one thing.

“Do I have to go back?” she asked, realizing that she was being petty and silly

and that the brown room had seemed like a haven just a little while ago.

“Go back?” Damon said, a little too quickly. She had the feeling that he’d seen

the brown room too, now, through her eyes. “Why? The landlady gave me

everything in the room. So I have your real clothes and a bunch of star balls down

there, in case you weren’t through with one. But why would you think you might have

to go back?”

“Well, I know you were looking for a lady of quality, and I’m not one,” Bonnie said

simply.

“That was just so I could change back into a vampire,” Damon said. “And what do

you think is holding you up in the air right now?” But this time Bonnie knew

somehow that the sensations from the “Never Ever” star balls were still in her mind

and that Damon was seeing them too. He was a vampire again. And the contents

of these star balls were so abominable that Damon’s stony exterior finally cracked.

Bonnie could almost guess what he thought of them, and of her, left to shiver under

her one blanket every night.

And then, to her total astonishment, Damon, the ever-composed, brand-new

vampire blurted, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how that place would be for you. Is

there anything that will make you feel better?”

Bonnie blinked. She wondered, seriously, if she were dreaming. Damon didn’t

apologize. Damon famously didn’t apologize, or explain, or speak so nicely to

people, unless he wanted something from them. But one thing seemed real. She

didn’t have to sleep in the brown room anymore.

This was so exciting that she flushed a little, and dared say, “Could we go down

to the ground? Slowly? Because the truth is that I’m just terrified of heights.”

Damon blinked, but said, “Yes, I think I can manage that. Is there anything else

you’d like?”

“Well—there are a couple of girls who’d be donors—happily—if—well—if there’s

any money left—if you could save them…”

Damon said a little sharply, “Of course there’s some money left. I even wrung

your share back out of that hag of a landlady.”

“Well, then, there’s that secret that I told you, but I don’t know if you remember.”

“How soon do you think you’ll feel well enough to start?” asked Damon.

S tefan woke early. He spent the time from dawn until breakfast just watching

Elena, who even in sleep had an inner glow like a golden flame through a faintly

rose-colored candle.

At breakfast, everyone was more or less still wrapped up in thoughts of the day

before. Meredith showed Matt the picture of her brother, Cristian, the vampire. Matt

briefly told Meredith about the inner workings of the Ridgemont court system and

painted her a picture of Caroline as werewolf. It was clear that both of them felt

safer at the boardinghouse than anywhere else.

And Elena, who had woken up with Stefan’s mind all around her, embracing her,

and her own mind still full of light, was completely at a loss for a Plan A or any other

letter. She had to be told gently by the others that only one thing made sense.

“Stefan,” Matt said, draining a mug of Mrs. Flowers’s pitch-black coffee. “He’s

the only one who might be able to use his mind instead of Post-it Notes on the

kids.”

And, “Stefan,” said Meredith. “He’s the only one Shinichi might be afraid of.”

“I’m no use at all,” Elena said sadly. She had no appetite. She had gotten

dressed with a feeling of love and compassion toward all humankind and a desire

to help protect her hometown, but as everyone pointed out, she was probably going

to have to spend the day in the root cellar. Reporters might come to call.

They’re right, Stefan sent to Elena. I’m the only logical person to find out what’s

really going on in Fell’s Church.

He actually went while the rest of them were finishing breakfast. Only Elena knew

why; only she could feel him at the limits of her telepathic range.

Stefan was hunting. He drove into the New Wood, got out, and finally startled a

rabbit out of the brush. He Influenced it to rest and not be frightened.

Surreptitiously, in this thin woodland without cover, he took a little blood from it…

and choked.

It tasted like some kind of hideous liquid flavored with rodent. Was a rabbit a

rodent? He had been lucky enough to find a rat one day in his prison cell and it had

tasted vaguely like this.

But now, for days, he had been drinking human blood. Not just that, but the rich,

potent blood of strong, adventurous, and in several cases paranormally talented

individuals—the crème de la crème. How could he have gotten used to it so

quickly?

It shamed him now, to think of what he’d taken. Elena’s blood, of course, was

enough to drive any vampire wild. And Meredith, whose blood had the deep crimson

taste of some primordial ocean, and Bonnie, who tasted like a telepath’s dessert.

And finally Matt, the All-American red-blooded boy.

They’d fed him and fed him by the hour, far past what he needed to survive.

They’d fed him until he’d begun to heal, and seeing that he was healing, they’d fed

him more. And it had gone on and on, ending with Elena last night—Elena, whose

hair was taking on a silvery cast and whose blue eyes seemed almost radiant.

Back in the Dark Dimension, Damon hadn’t exercised any restraint at all. Elena

hadn’t exercised any on her own behalf.

That silvery cast…Stefan’s stomach clenched when he thought about it, about

the last time he’d seen her hair that way. She’d been dead then. On her feet, but

dead just the same.

Stefan let the rabbit scamper away. He was taking another oath. He must not

make Elena into a vampire again. That meant no significant blood exchange

between the two of them for at least a week—either giving or taking might tip her

over the edge.

He must once again adjust to the taste of animal blood.

Stefan shut his eyes briefly, remembering the horror of the first time. The

cramps. The shakes. The agony that seemed to tell his entire body that it wasn’t

getting fed. The feeling that his veins might explode into flame at any moment, and

the pain in his jaws.

He stood up. He was lucky to be alive. Luckier than he ever could have dreamed

he would be in having Elena beside him. He would work through the readjustment

without bothering her by telling her, he decided.

Just two hours later Stefan was back at the boardinghouse, limping slightly. Matt,

who met him at the heavy front door, noticed the limp. “You okay? You’d better get

in and ice it.”

“Just a cramp,” Stefan said briefly. “I’m not used to exercise. Didn’t get any back

there in—you know.” He looked away, flushing. So did Matt, hot and cold and

furious at the people who had put Stefan in this condition. Vampires were pretty

resilient, but he had the feeling—no, he knew —that Stefan had almost died in his

prison cell. One day under lock and key had convinced Matt that he never wanted

to be imprisoned again.

He followed Stefan to the kitchen where Elena, Meredith, and Mrs. Flowers were

—what else?—drinking mugs of tea.

And Matt felt a twinge when Elena instantly noticed the limp and got up and went

to Stefan, and Stefan held her tightly, running reassuring fingers through her hair.

Matt couldn’t help but wonder, though—was that glorious golden hair turning lighter?

More like the silvery gold it had been when Elena had first gone with Stefan and

was on her way to turning into a vampire? Stefan certainly seemed to be inspecting

it closely, turning each handful as he raked his fingers through it.

“Any luck?” Elena asked him, tension in her voice.

Wearily, Stefan shook his head. “I went up streets and down streets and

wherever I found a—a young girl who was contorted, or whirling round and round,

or doing any other of the things the papers mentioned, I tried to Influence them.

Well, maybe I shouldn’t have bothered with the whirling girls. I couldn’t catch their

eyes. But the final count is zero for eleven.”

Elena turned toward Meredith in agitation. “What do we do?”

Mrs. Flowers busily began rummaging through bundles of herbs that hung above

her stove. “You need a nice cup of tea.”

“And a rest,” Meredith said, patting him lightly on the hand. “Can I get you

anything?”

“Well—I’ve got a new idea—scrying. But I need Misao’s star ball to see if it will

work. Don’t worry,” he added, “I won’t use any of the Power in it; I just need to look

at the surface.”

“I’ll bring it,” Elena offered, getting up promptly from where she was sitting on his

lap. Matt started slightly and looked at Mrs. Flowers as Elena went to the door of

the root cellar and pushed. Nothing moved and Mrs. Flowers simply watched

benignly. It was Stefan who rose to help her, still limping. Then Matt and Meredith

got up, Meredith asking, “Mrs. Flowers, are you sure we should keep the star ball in

that same safe?”

“Ma ma says we’re doing the right thing,” Mrs. Flowers answered serenely.

After that things happened very fast.

As if they’d rehearsed it, Meredith pressed the exact place to open the root

cellar door. Elena fell to her hands and knees. Faster than even he had imagined

he could go, Matt went barreling toward Stefan with one shoulder down. Mrs.

Flowers was frantically pulling great swaths of dried herbs down from where they

hung above the kitchen table.

And then Matt was hitting Stefan with all the power in his body and Stefan was

stumbling over Elena, his head going down and down and meeting no resistance on

the way. Meredith was coming at him sideways and helping him do a complete

forward flip in the air. As soon as the flip took him out of the doorway and he was

cartwheeling down the stairs, Elena got up and shut the door and Meredith leaned

against it, as Matt shouted, “How do you keep in a kitsune?”

“These might help,” gasped Mrs. Flowers, stuffing odiferous herbs into the crack

under the door.

“And—iron!” cried Elena, and she and Meredith and Matt all ran to the den where

there was an enormous, tripartite iron fire screen. Somehow they bundled it back to

the kitchen and set it upright against the root cellar door. Just then the first crash

came from the inside against it, but the iron was heavy and the second crash

against the door was weaker.

“What are you doing? Have you all gone crazy?” Stefan shouted plaintively, but

as the entire group began to cover the door in Post-it Note amulets, he cursed

instead and became pure Shinichi. “You’ll be sorry, damn you! Misao’s not right.

She cries and cries. You’ll make it up to her with your blood, but not before I

introduce you to some special friends of mine. The kind who know how to cause

real pain!”

Elena lifted her head, as if hearing something. Matt watched her frown. Then she

called to Shinichi, “Don’t even try to probe for Damon. He’s gone. And if you try to

track him I’ll fry your brains.”

Sullen silence greeted her from the root cellar.

“My goodness gracious, what next?” murmured Mrs. Flowers.

Elena simply nodded for the others to follow her, and they went all the way to the

very top of the house—Stefan’s room—and spoke in whispers.

“How did you know?”

“Did you use telepathy?”

“ I didn’t know at first,” Matt admitted, “but Elena was acting as if the star ball was

in the root cellar. Stefan knows it’s not there. I guess,” he added with a guilty start,

“that I invited him in.”

“I knew as soon as he started groping my hair,” Elena said with a shudder.

“Stefan and D—I mean, Stefan knows I only like it touched lightly, and at the ends.

Not mauled like that. Remember all Shinichi’s little songs about golden hair? He’s a

nutcase. Anyway, I could tell from the feel of his mind.”

Matt felt ashamed. All his wondering about Elena maybe changing into a

vampire…and this was the answer, he thought.

“I noticed his lapis ring,” Meredith said. “I saw him with it on his right hand as he

went out earlier. When he came back he had it on his left hand.”

There was a brief pause as they all stared at her. She shrugged. “It was part of

my training, noticing little things.”

“Good point,” Matt said at last. “Good point. He wouldn’t be able to change it in

sunlight.”

“How did you know, Mrs. Flowers?” Elena asked. “Or was it just the way we were

behaving?”

“Goodness, no, you’re all very good little actors. But as soon as he stepped over

the threshold Ma ma fairly shrieked at me: ‘What are you doing, letting a kitsune

into your house?’ So then I knew what we were in for.”

“We beat him!” Elena said, beaming. “We actually caught Shinichi off guard! I

can hardly believe it.”

“Believe it,” Meredith said with a wry smile. “He was off guard for a moment.

He’ll be thinking up revenge right now.”

Something else was worrying Matt. He turned to Elena. “I thought that you said

that both you and Shinichi had keys that could take you anywhere, anytime. So why

couldn’t he have just said, ‘Take me inside the boardinghouse where the star ball

is’?”

“Those were different keys from the Twin Fox key,” Elena said, her brows drawn

together. “They’re, like, the Master Keys and Shinichi and Misao still have them

both. I don’t know why he didn’t use his. Although it would have given him away the

moment he was inside.”

“Not if he went inside the root cellar, and stayed there the whole time,” Meredith

said. “And maybe a Master Key can override the ‘not invited inside’ rule.”

Mrs. Flowers said, “But Ma ma still would have told me. Also there are no

keyholes in the root cellar. At all.”

“‘No keyholes’ wouldn’t matter, I don’t think,” Elena answered. “I think he just

wanted to show how clever he was, and how he could fool us into giving him

Misao’s star ball.”

Before anyone else could say a word, Meredith held out her palm, with a shining

key on it. The key was golden with diamonds inset and had a very familiar outline.

“That’s one of the Master Keys!” cried Elena. “It’s what we thought the Twin Fox

key would look like!”

“It sort of came out of his jeans pocket when he did that flip,” Meredith said

innocently.

“When you were flipping him over me, you mean,” said Elena. “I suppose you

picked his pocket too.”

“So, right now, Shinichi doesn’t have a key to escape with!” Matt said excitedly.

“No key to make keyholes,” Elena agreed, dimpling.

“He can have fun changing into a mole and burrowing out of the root cellar,”

Meredith said coolly. “That’s if he’s got his transforming gear or whatever with him.”

She added, with a troubled change in her voice, “I wonder…if we should have Matt

tell one other person where he’s actually hidden the star ball. Just…well, just in

case.”

Matt saw knitted brows all around him. But suddenly the realization hit him that he

had to tell someone that he’d hidden the star ball in his closet. The group—including

Stefan—had picked him to hide it because he had so stubbornly resisted when

Shinichi was using Damon’s body as a puppet to torture him a month ago. Matt had

proved then that he would die in hideous pain rather than endanger his friends. But

if Matt were to die now, Misao’s star ball might be lost to the group forever. And

only Matt knew how close he had come today to tumbling down the stairs along with

Shinichi.

Far below they all heard a shout. “Hello! Is anybody home? Elena!”

“That’s my Stefan,” Elena said and then, without a shred of dignity, she ran to

launch herself from the foyer into his arms. He looked startled, but managed to

break her fall before they both went down on the porch.

“What’s been going on?” he said, his body vibrating infinitesimally, as with the

urge to fight. “The whole house smells like kitsune!”

“It’s all right,” Elena said. “Come and see.” She led him upstairs to his room.

“We’ve got him in the root cellar,” she added.

Stefan looked confused. “You’ve got who in the root cellar?”

“With iron against the door,” Matt said triumphantly. “And herbs and amulets all

over it. And, anyway, Meredith got his key. ”

“His key? You’re talking about—Shinichi?” Stefan turned on Meredith, green

eyes wide. “While I’ve been gone?”

“It was mostly an accident. I sort of stuck my hand in his pocket when he was

upside down and off balance. And I lucked out and got the Master Key—unless this

is an ordinary house key.”

Stefan stared at it. “It’s the real thing. Elena knows that. Meredith, you’re

incredible!”

“Yes, it’s the right one,” Elena confirmed. “I remember the shape—pretty

elaborate, yes?” She took it from Meredith’s hand.

“What are you going to—”

“Might as well test it,” Elena said with a mischievous smile. She walked to the

door of the room, shut it, said, “The den downstairs,” inserted the winged key in the

lock, and opened the door, stepping through and shutting the door behind her.

Before anyone could speak, she was back, with the poker from the den held aloft in

triumph.

“It works!” Stefan cried.

“That’s amazing,” Matt said.

Stefan looked almost feverish. “But don’t you realize what it means? It means we

can use this key. We can go anywhere we like without using Power. Even to the

Dark Dimension! But first—while he’s still here—we ought to do something about

Shinichi.”

“You’re in no condition to do that now, dear Stefan,” Mrs. Flowers said, shaking

her head. “I’m sorry, but the truth is that we have been very, very lucky. That wicked

kitsune was off guard back then. He won’t be now.”

“I still have to try,” Stefan said quietly. “Every one of you has been tormented or

had to fight—whether with your fists or your minds,” he added, bowing slightly to

Mrs. Flowers. “I’ve suffered but I’ve never had a chance to fight him. I have to try.”

Matt said, just as quietly, “I’ll go with you.”

Elena added, “We can all fight together. Right, Meredith?”

Meredith nodded slowly, taking Stefan’s poker from his fireplace. “Yes. It may be

a low blow, but—together.”

“I say it’s a higher blow than letting him live and go on hurting people. Anyway,

we’ll take care of it…together,” Elena said firmly. “Right now!”

Matt started to get up, but his motion was frozen in midair as he stared in horror.

Simultaneously, with the grace of hunting lionesses or ballet dancers the two girls

closed in on Stefan, and simultaneously they swung their separate pokers; Elena

hitting him in the head and Meredith hitting him squarely in the groin. Stefan reeled

away from the blow to the head, but simply said, “Ow!” when Meredith hit him. Matt

knocked Elena out of the way and then, turning as precisely as if he were on the

football field, got Meredith out of “Stefan’s” way too.

But this imposter had obviously decided not to fight back. Stefan’s form melted.

Misao, green leaves woven into her scarlet-tipped black hair, stood before them.

To Matt’s shock, her face was pinched and pale. She was obviously very ill,

although still defiant. But there was no mockery in her voice tonight.

“What have you done with my star ball? And my brother?” she demanded feebly.

“Your brother’s safely locked up,” Matt said, hardly knowing what he was telling

her. Despite all the crimes Misao had committed he couldn’t help feeling sorry for

her. She was clearly desperate and ill.

“I know that. I was going to say my brother will kill you all—not as a game, but in

anger. ” Now Misao looked wretched and frightened. “You’ve never seen him really

angry.”

“You’ve never seen Stefan angry either,” Elena said. “At least not when he had

all his Power.”

Misao just shook her head. A dried leaf floated from her hair. “You don’t

understand!”

“I doubt we understand anything. Meredith, have we searched this girl?”

“No, but surely she wouldn’t have brought the other one—”

Elena said crisply, “Matt, take a book and read it. I’ll tell you when we’re done.”

Matt was reluctant to turn his back on a kitsune, even a sick one. But when even

Mrs. Flowers nodded gently he obeyed. Still, back turned or not, he could hear

noises. And the noises suggested that Misao was being held tightly and searched

thoroughly. At first the sounds were all negative murmurs.

“Huh-uh…huh-uh…huh-uh…huh- oops!” There was a rattle of metal on wood.

Matt only turned when Elena said, “Okay, you can look. It was in her front

pocket.” She added to Misao, who was looking as if she might faint, “We didn’t

want to have to hold you and search you. But this key—where in heaven’s name

did you get keys like this, anyway?”

A pink spot showed on Misao’s cheeks. “Heaven is right. They’re the only two left

of the Master Keys—and they belong to Shinichi and me. I figured out how to steal

them from the Celestial Court. That was…a long time ago.”

At that moment they heard a car on the road—Stefan’s Porsche. In the dead

silence that followed, they could also see the car through Stefan’s window as it

swung into the driveway.

“No one goes down,” Elena said tersely. “No one invites him in.”

Meredith shot her a keen glance. “Shinichi could have tunneled out like a mole by

now. And he’s already been invited in.”

“My fault for not warning you all—but anyway, if it is Shinichi and he’s done

anything to hurt Stefan he’s going to see me when I’m angry. The words Wings of

Destruction just popped into my head and something inside me wants to say them.”

There was a chill in the room.

No one met Stefan, but in a moment they could all hear running footsteps. Stefan

appeared at his door, burst through, and found himself confronted with a row of

people all looking at him suspiciously.

“What the hell is going on?” he demanded, staring at Misao, who was being held

up between Meredith and Matt. “Misao—”

Elena took two steps toward him—and wound herself around him, drawing him

into a deep kiss. For a moment he resisted, but then, bit by bit, his opposition

collapsed despite the roomful of observers.

When Elena finally let go, she just leaned against Stefan, breathing hard. The

others were all crimson with embarrassment. Stefan, flushed as he was, held her

tightly.

“I’m sorry,” Elena whispered. “But you’ve already ‘come home’ twice. First, it was

Shinichi and we locked him in the root cellar. Then it was her. ” She pointed, without

looking, toward the cowering Misao. “I didn’t know how to make sure that Shinichi

hadn’t escaped somehow—”

“And you’re sure now?”

“Oh, yes. I recognize you. You’re always ready to let me in.”

Matt realized that she was shaking and quickly stood up so she could sit, for at

least a minute or two, in peace.

The peace lasted less than a minute.

“I want my star ball!” Misao cried. “I need to put Power in it or I’ll go on weakening

—and then you’ll have murdered me.”

“Go on weakening? Is the liquid evaporating out of the star ball or something?”

Meredith asked. Matt was thinking about what he’d seen on his home block before

the Ridgemont sheriffs had got him.

“You’ve gathered Power to put in it?” he asked mildly. “Power from yesterday,

maybe?”

“Power from ever since you took it. But it isn’t joined with…me. With my star ball.

It’s mine, but not yet. ”

“Like maybe some Power from making Cole Reece eat his guinea pig while it

was alive? From making kids burn down their own houses?” Matt’s voice was

gravelly.

“What does it matter?” Misao retorted sullenly. “It’s mine. They were my ideas,

not yours. You can’t keep me away—”

“Meredith, keep me away from her. I’ve known that kid Cole since he was born.