Contents 21 страница

the same time, to get the crumbled leaves out of her top. Finally she had to say,

“Just a second, everybody. Guys, could you turn around? Bonnie, could you come

back here and help me?” Bonnie was glad to help and Elena was astonished at how

long it took to pick gunk away from her own flinching back.

Next time you want a scientific opinion, try asking, Damon’s scornful telepathy

commented. Aloud, he added, “I’d say it’s about eighty percent Earth’s gravity here

and we could well be on a moon. Doesn’t signify. If Sage hadn’t helped us with this

compass, we’d never be able to find the tree’s trunk—at least not in time.”

“And remember,” Elena said, “that the idea that the star ball is near the trunk is

just a guess. We have to keep our eyes open!”

“But what should we look for?” Once, Bonnie would have wailed this. Now she

simply asked quietly.

“Well…” Elena turned to Stefan. “It will look bright, won’t it? Against this horrible

half-light?”

“This horrible camouflage-green half-light,” Stefan agreed. “It should look like a

slightly shifting bright light.”

“But put it like this,” Damon said, walking backward gracefully and flashing his old

250-kilowatt smile for a second at them. “If we don’t follow Sage’s suggestion, we’ll

never find the trunk. If we try to wander randomly around this world, we will never

find anything —including our way back. And then not only Fell’s Church, but we will

all die, in this order. First, we two vampires will break with all civilized behavior, as

starvation—”

“Stefan won’t,” cried Elena, and Bonnie said, “You’re just as bad as Shinichi, with

his ‘revelations’ about us!”

Damon smiled subtly. “If I were as bad as Shinichi, little redbird, you would

already be punctured like an empty juice box—or I would be sitting back with Sage,

enjoying Black Magic—”

“Look, this is pointless,” Stefan said.

Damon feigned sympathy. “Maybe you have…problems…in the canine area, but

I do not, little brother.” He deliberately held the smile this time so everyone could

see his pointed teeth.

Stefan wouldn’t be baited. “And it’s holding us up—”

“Wrong, little brother. Some of us have mastered the art of speaking and walking

at the same time.”

“Damon—stop it! Just stop!” Elena said, rubbing her hot forehead with cold

fingers.

Damon shrugged, still moving backward. “You only had to ask,” he said, with just

the slightest emphasis on the first word.

Elena said nothing in return. She felt feverish.

It wasn’t all just straight walking. Frequently there were huge mounds of knotted

roots in their way that had to be climbed. Sometimes Stefan had to use the axe

from his backpack to make footholds.

Elena had come to hate the deep green demi-light more than anything. It played

tricks on her eyes, just as the muffled sound of their feet on the leaf-strewn ground

played tricks on her ears. Several times she stopped—and once Stefan did—to

say, “There’s someone else here! Following us!”

Each time they had all stopped and listened intently. Stefan and Damon sent

telepathic probes of Power as far as they could reach, seeking another mind. But

either it was so well disguised as to be invisible or it didn’t exist at all.

And then, after Elena felt as if she had been walking her whole life, and would

keep walking until eternity ended, Damon stopped abruptly. Bonnie, just behind him,

sucked in her breath. Elena and Stefan hurried forward to see what it was.

What Elena saw made her say, unsteadily, “I think maybe we missed the trunk

and…found…the edge…”

On the ground in front of her and as far as she could see, was the star-studded

darkness of space. But washing out the light of the stars was a huge planet and two

huge moons, one swirled blue and white and one silver.

Stefan was holding her hand, sharing the wonder with her, and tingles ran up her

arm and into her suddenly weak knees, just from his feather-light touch on her

fingers.

Then Damon said caustically, “Look up. ”

Elena did and gasped. For just an instant her body was completely unmoored.

She and Stefan automatically wound their arms around each other. And then Elena

realized what they were seeing, both above and below.

“It’s water,” she said, staring at the pool spread out before them. “One of those

freshwater seas Sage told us about. And not a ripple on it. Not a breath of wind.”

“But it does look as if we’re on that smallest moon,” Stefan said mildly, his eyes

deceptively innocent as he looked at Damon.

“Yes, well, then there’s something exceedingly heavy at the core of this moonlet,

to allow for eight-tenths the gravity we normally experience, and to hang on to so

much atmosphere—but who cares about logic? This is a world we reached through

the Nether World. Why should logic apply?” He looked at Elena with slightly

narrowed, hooded eyes.

“Where is the third one? The grave one?”

The voice came from behind them—Elena thought. She was—they all were—

turning from looking at brilliant light into half-darkness. Everything shimmered and

danced before her eyes.

“Grave Meredith; laughing Bonnie;

And Elena with golden hair.

They whisper and then are silent…

They plot and I no longer care…

But I must have Elena,

Elena with the Golden Hair…”

“Well, you’re not going to have me!” cried Elena. “And that poem is a complete

misquote, anyway. I remember it from freshman English class. And you’re crazy! ”

Even through her anger and fear she wondered about Fell’s Church. If Shinichi was

here, could he bring about the Last Midnight there? Or could Misao simply set it off

with a languid wave?

“But I will have you, golden Elena,” the kitsune said.

Both Stefan and Damon had knives out. “That’s just where you’re wrong,

Shinichi,” Stefan said. “You will never, ever touch Elena again.”

“I have to try. You’ve taken everything else.”

Elena’s heart was pounding now. If he’ll talk sense to any of us, he’ll talk to me,

she thought. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the Last Midnight, Shinichi?” she

asked in a friendly tone, inwardly trembling in case he should say, “It’s already

over.”

“ She doesn’t need me. She wouldn’t protect Misao. Why should I help Her?”

For a moment Elena couldn’t speak. She? She? Other than Misao, what other

She was involved in this?

Damon had a crossbow out now, with a quarrel loaded in it. But Shinichi just went

rambling on.

“Misao couldn’t move anymore. She had put all her Power into her star ball, you

see. She never laughed or sang any longer—never made up any plots with me.

She just…sat.

“Finally she asked me to put her into myself. She thought we’d become one that

way. So she dissolved and merged right into me. But it didn’t help. Now…I can

barely hear her. I’ve come to get my star ball. I’ve been using its energy to travel

through the dimensions. If I put Misao into my star ball, she’ll recover. Then I’ll hide

it again—but not where I left it last. I’ll put it farther up where no one else will ever

find it.” He seemed to focus on his listeners. “So I guess it’s Misao and I who are

talking to you right now. Except that I’m so lonely—I can’t feel her at all.”

“You will not touch Elena,” Stefan said quietly.

Damon was looking grimly at the rest of the group at Shinichi’s words, “…I’ll put it

farther up…”

“Go on, Bonnie, keep moving,” Stefan added. “You too, Elena. We’ll follow.”

Elena let Bonnie go some feet ahead before saying telepathically, We can’t

break up, Stefan; there’s only one compass.

Watch out, Elena! He might hear you! came Stefan’s voice, and Damon added

flatly, Shut up!

“Don’t bother telling her to shut up,” Shinichi said. “You’re mad if you think that I

can’t just pick your thoughts right out of your minds. I didn’t think you were that

stupid.”

“We’re not stupid,” Bonnie said hotly.

“No? Then did you figure out my riddles for you?”

“This is hardly the time for that,” Elena snapped. It was a mistake, for it caused

Shinichi to focus on her again.

“Did you tell them what you think about the tragedy of Camelot, Elena? No, I

didn’t think you’d have the courage. I’ll tell them, then, shall I? I’ll read it as you put it

in your diary.”

“No! You can’t have read my diary! Anyway—it’s no longer applicable! ” Elena

flared.

“Let me see…these are your own words now.” He assumed a reading voice.

‘Dear Diary, one of Shinichi’s riddles was what I thought of Camelot. You know, the

legend of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and the knight she loved, Lancelot. And

here’s what I thought. A lot of innocent people died and were miserable because

three selfish people—a king, a queen, and a knight—couldn’t behave in a civilized

way. They couldn’t understand that the more you love, the more you find to love.

But those three couldn’t give in to love and just share—all three of them…’”

“Shut up!” screamed Elena. “Shut up!”

My God, Damon said, my life just lapped itself.

So did mine. Stefan sounded dizzy.

Just forget about all of it, Elena told them. It’s not true anymore. Stefan, I’m

yours forever, and I always was. And right now w e’ve got to get rid of this

bastard, and run for the trunk.

“Misao and I used to do that,” Shinichi said. “Talk alone together on a special

frequency. You’re certainly a good manipulator, Elena, to keep them from killing

each other over you.”

“Yes, it’s a special frequency I call the truth,” Elena said. “But I’m not half as good

a manipulator as Damon is. Now attack us or let us go away. We’re in a hurry!”

“Attack you?” Shinichi seemed to be thinking over the idea. And then, faster than

Elena could track it, he went for Bonnie. The vampires, who had been expecting

him to try to get to Elena, were caught off guard, but Elena, who had seen the

flicker of his eyes toward the weaker girl, was already diving for him. He moved

back so quickly that she found herself heading for his legs, but then she realized

she had a chance to throw him off balance. She deliberately went for a headbutt

with his kneecap, at the same time stabbing deep into his foot with her knife.

Forgive me, Bonnie, she thought, knowing what he would do. It was the same as

what he’d had his puppet, Damon, do when he’d held Elena and Matt hostage

before—except that he didn’t need a pine branch to direct the pain. Black energy

erupted directly from his hands into Bonnie’s small body.

But there was another factor he hadn’t taken into account. When he’d had

Damon attack Matt and Elena he’d had the sense to keep away from them while

directing agony into their bodies. This time, he’d seized Bonnie and wrapped his

arms around her. And Bonnie was a most excellent telepath herself, especially at

projecting. When the first wave of agony hit her, she screamed—and redirected

the pain toward Shinichi.

It was like completing a circuit. It didn’t hurt Bonnie any less, but it meant that

anything Shinichi did to her he felt in his own body, amplified by Bonnie’s terror.

That was the system that Elena slammed into as hard as she could. When her

head impacted with his knee, his kneebone was the more fragile of the two, and

something inside it crackled. Dazed, she concentrated on twisting the knife she’d

stabbed through his foot and into the soil below.

It wouldn’t have worked if she hadn’t had two extremely agile vampires right

behind her. Since Shinichi didn’t fall over, she would just have been putting her neck

at the perfect level for him to snap cleanly.

But Stefan was only a split second behind her. He seized her and was out of

Shinichi’s reach before the kitsune could even assess the situation properly.

“Let me go,” Elena gasped at Stefan. She was determined to get Bonnie. “I left

my knife,” she added craftily, finding a more concrete reason for forcing Stefan to

let her back into the fray.

“Where?”

“In his foot, of course.”

She could feel Stefan trying not to laugh out loud. “I think that’s a good place to

leave it. Take one of mine,” he added.

If you’ve quite finished your little chat, you might get rid of his tails, came

Damon’s cold telepathy.

At that moment Bonnie passed out, but with her own telepathic circuits still wide

open and directed back toward Shinichi. And now Damon had gone into offensive

mode, as if he cared nothing about Bonnie’s well-being, as long as he could get

through her to Shinichi.

Stefan, quick as a striking snake, went for one of the many tails that now waved

behind Shinichi, advertising his tremendous Power. Most of them were translucent,

and they surrounded his real tail—the flesh-and-blood tail that every fox had.

Stefan’s knife went snick and one of the phantom tails fell to the ground and then

disappeared. There was no blood, but Shinichi keened in fury and pain.

Damon, meanwhile, was ruthlessly attacking from the front. As soon as Stefan

had distracted the kitsune from the back, Damon slashed both Shinichi’s wrists—

one quickly on the upstroke, the other just as fast on the down-stroke. Then he

went for a body blow just at the moment that Stefan, with Elena held like a baby on

his hip, snicked away another phantom tail.

Elena was struggling. She was seriously worried that Damon would kill Bonnie to

get to Shinichi. And besides, she herself would not be toted around like a piece of

luggage! Civilization had tumbled down all around her and she was reacting from

her deepest instincts: protect Stefan, protect Bonnie, protect Fell’s Church. Put the

enemy down. She hardly realized that in her heightened state she had sunk her

unfortunately still-human teeth into Stefan’s shoulder.

He winced slightly, but he listened to her. All right! Try to get Bonnie, then—see if

you can ease her.

He let go of her just as Shinichi whirled to deal with him, channeling the black pain

that, back on Earth, had flung Matt and Elena off their feet in seizures, directly

toward Stefan.

Elena, just released, found that everyone was making a half turn, as if to oblige

her, and suddenly she saw a chance. She snatched at the limp form of Bonnie, and

Shinichi dropped the smaller girl into her arms.

Words were echoing in Elena’s brain. Get Bonnie. See if you can ease her.

Well, she had Bonnie now. Her own sense split Stefan’s two orders with another

— get her away from Shinichi. She’s the priceless hostage.

Elena found that she could almost scream with fury even now. She had to keep

Bonnie safe—but that meant leaving Stefan, gentle Stefan, at the mercy of

Shinichi. She scrambled away with Bonnie—so small and light—and at the same

time threw a backward glance at Stefan. He was wearing a slight frown of

concentration now, but he was not only not overwhelmed with pain, he was pressing

forward the attack.

Even though Shinichi’s head was on fire. The brilliant crimson tips of his black

hair had burst into flames, as if nothing else would express his enmity and his

certainty of winning. He was crowning himself with a flaming garland, a hellish halo.

Elena’s anger at that turned into chills down her spine as she watched something

most people never lived to analyze: two vampires attacking together, perfectly in

sync. There was the elemental savagery in it of a pair of raptors or wolves, but

there was also the awesome beauty of two creatures working as a single, unified

body. The distance in Stefan’s and Damon’s expressions said that this was a fight

to the death. The occasional frown from Stefan or vicious smile from Damon

meant that Shinichi was sending his searing dark Power through one or the other of

them. But these weren’t weak humans Shinichi was playing with now. They were

both vampires with bodies that healed almost instantly—and vampires who had

both fed recently—from her —Elena. Her extraordinary blood was feuling them now.

So I’m already a part of this, Elena thought. I’m helping them right now. That

would have to satisfy the savagery this no-holds-barred fight elicited in her. To ruin

the perfect synchronicity with which the two vampires were handling Shinichi would

be a crime, especially when Bonnie was still limp in her arms.

As humans, we’re both liabilities, she thought. And Damon wouldn’t hesitate to tell

me so, even if all I wanted was to get in one single stroke.

Bonnie, come on, Bonnie, she thought. Hold on to me. We’re getting farther

away. She picked up the smaller girl under the armpits and dragged her. She

backed up into the olive dimness that stretched in all directions. When she tripped

over a root and accidentally sat down, she decided that she’d gone far enough, and

maneuvered Bonnie into her lap.

Then she cupped her hands around Bonnie’s little heart-shaped face and she

thought of the most soothing things she could imagine. A cool plunge at Warm

Springs back home. A hot bath at Lady Ulma’s and then a four-handed massage,

lying comfortably on a drying couch with the scent of floral incense rising around

her. A cuddle with Saber in Mrs. Flowers’s informal den. The decadence of

sleeping late and waking up in her own bed—with her own mother and father and

sister in the house.

As Elena thought of this last, she couldn’t help giving a tiny gasp, and a teardrop

fell onto Bonnie’s forehead. Bonnie’s eyelashes fluttered.

“Now, don’t you be sad,” she whispered. “Elena?”

“I’ve got you, and nobody’s going to hurt you again. Do you still feel bad?”

“A little. But I could hear you, in my mind, and it made me feel better. I want a long

bath and a pizza. And to hold baby Adara. She can almost talk, you know. Elena—

you’re not listening to me!”

Elena wasn’t. She was watching the dénouement of the fight between Stefan and

Damon and Shinichi. The vampires had the kitsune down now and were squabbling

over him like a couple of fledglings over a particularly tasty worm. Or maybe like a

pair of baby dragons—Elena wasn’t sure if birds hissed at each other.

“Oh, no—yuck!” Bonnie saw what Elena was watching and collapsed, hiding her

head against Elena’s shoulder. Okay, Elena thought. I get it. There’s no savagery

at all in you, is there, Bonnie? Mischief, but nothing like bloodlust. And that’s good.

Even as she thought this, Bonnie abruptly sat up straight, bumping Elena’s chin,

and pointing into the distance. “Wait!” she cried. “Do you see that?”

That was a very bright light, which flared brighter as each vampire found a place

to his liking on Shinichi’s body and bit simultaneously.

“Stay here,” Elena said, a little thickly, because when Bonnie had bumped her

chin she’d accidentally bitten her tongue. She ran back to the two vampires and

knocked them as hard as she could over the heads. She had to get their attention

before they got completely locked into feeding mode.

Not surprisingly, Stefan detached first, and then helped her to pull Damon off his

defeated enemy.

Damon snarled and paced, never taking his eyes off Shinichi as the beaten

kitsune slowly sat up. Elena noticed drops of blood scattered around. Then she

saw it, tucked into Damon’s belt, black and crimson-tipped and sleek: Shinichi’s real

tail.

Savagery fled…fast. Elena wanted to hide her head against Stefan’s shoulder

but instead turned up her face for a kiss. Stefan obliged.

Then Elena stepped back so that they formed a triangle around Shinichi.

“Don’t even think of attacking,” Damon said pleasantly.

Shinichi gave a weak shrug. “Attack you? Why bother? You’ll have nothing to go

back to, even if I die. The children are pre-programmed to kill. But”—with sudden

vehemence—“I wish we’d never come to your damned little town at all—and I wish

we’d never followed Her orders. I wish I’d never let Misao near Her! I wish we

hadn’t—” He stopped speaking suddenly. No, it was more than that, Elena thought.

He froze, eyes wide open and staring. “Oh, no,” he whispered. “Oh, no, I didn’t

mean that! I didn’t mean it! I have no regrets—”

Elena had the feeling of something coming at them at tremendous speed, so

fast, in fact, that she just had time to open her mouth before it hit Shinichi.

Whatever it was, it killed him cleanly and passed by without touching anyone else.

Shinichi fell facedown onto the dirt.

“Don’t bother,” Elena said softly, as Stefan reflexively moved toward the corpse.

“He’s dead. He did it to himself.”

“But how?” Stefan and Damon demanded in chorus.

“I’m not the expert,” Elena said. “Meredith is the expert on this. But she told me

that kitsune could only be killed by destroying their star balls, shooting them with a

blessed bullet…or by the ‘Sin of Regret.’ Meredith and I didn’t know what that meant

back then—it was before we had even gone into the Dark Dimension. But I think we

just now saw it in action.”

“So you can’t be a kitsune and regret anything you’ve done? That’s—harsh,”

Stefan said.

“Not at all,” Damon said crisply. “Although, if it had operated for vampires, no

doubt you would have been permanently dead when you woke up in the family

vault.”

“Earlier,” Stefan said expressionlessly. “I regreted striking you a mortal blow,

even as I was dying. You’ve always said I feel too guilty, but that is one thing I would

give my life to take back.”

There was a silence that stretched and stretched. Damon was at the front of the

group now, and no one but Bonnie could see his face.

Suddenly Elena grabbed Stefan’s hand. “We still have a chance!” she told him.

“Bonnie and I saw something bright that way! Let’s run!” He and Elena passed

Damon running and he grabbed Bonnie’s hand too. “Like the wind, Bonnie!”

“But with Shinichi dead—well, do we really have to find his star ball or the biggest

star ball or whatever is hidden in this awful place?” Bonnie asked. Once, she would

have whined, Elena thought. Now, despite whatever pain she felt, she was running.

“We do have to find it, I’m afraid,” Stefan said. “Because from what he said,

Shinichi wasn’t at the top of the ladder after all. He and his sister were working for

someone, someone female. And whoever She is, She may be attacking Fell’s

Church right now.”

“The odds have just shifted,” Elena said. “We have an unknown enemy.”

“But still—”

“All bets,” Elena said, “are off.”

M att broke a lot of traffic rules on the way to the Saitous’ street. Meredith leaned

on the console between the two front seats so that she could see the digital clock

ticking down to midnight, and so that she could watch the transformation of Mrs.

Flowers. At last her recently sane, sensible mind forced words out of her mouth.

“Mrs. Flowers—you’re changing.”

“Yes, Meredith, dear. Some of it is due to the little present that Sage left for me.

Some of it is my own will—to return to the days when I was in my prime. I believe

that this will be my last fight, so I don’t mind using all my energy in it. Fell’s Church

must be saved.”

“But—Mrs. Flowers—the people here—well, they haven’t always been—exactly

nice—” Matt stammered his way to a stop.

“The people here are like people everywhere,” Mrs. Flowers said calmly. “Treat

them as you’d like to be treated, and things will be fine. It was only when I’d let

myself become a bitter, lonely old woman, always resentful of the fact that I had

had to turn my home into a boardinghouse just to make ends meet, that people

began to treat me—well, at best as a loony old hag.”

“Oh, Mrs. Flowers—and we’ve been such a bother to you!” Meredith found the

words coming without her volition.

“You’ve been the saving of me, child. Dear Stefan was the start, but as you can

imagine, he didn’t want to explain all his little differences to me, and I was

suspicious of him. But he was always cordial and respectful and Elena was like

sunlight, and Bonnie like laughter. Eventually, when I dropped my hidebound

barriers, so did you young ones. I won’t say more about those who are present so

as not to embarrass you, but you’ve done me a world of good.”

Matt ran another stop sign and cleared his throat. Then, the steering wheel

wavering slightly, he cleared his throat again.

Meredith took over. “I think what Matt and I both want to say is…well, it’s that

you’ve become very special to us, and we don’t want to see you get hurt. This

battle—”

“Is a battle for all I hold dear. For all my memories. Back when I was a child and

the boardinghouse was built—it was just a home, then, and I was very happy. As a

young woman, I was very happy. And now that I have lived long enough to be an old

woman—well, besides you children, I still have friends like Sophia Alpert and Orime

Saitou. They are both healing women, and very good at it. We still talk about

different uses for my herbs.”

Matt snapped his fingers. “That’s another reason I was confused,” he said.

“Because Dr. Alpert said that you and Mrs. Saitou were such good people. I

thought she meant the old Mrs. Saitou—”

“Who is not a ‘Mrs. Saitou’ at all,” Mrs. Flowers said, almost sharply. “I have no

idea what her name really is—perhaps she is really Inari, a deity gone bad. Ten

years ago, I didn’t know what made Orime Saitou suddenly so diffident and quiet.

Now I realize that it began just around the time her ‘mother’ moved in with her. I was

quite fond of young Isobel, but she suddenly became—aloof—in an unchildlike way.

Now I understand. And I am determined to fight for her—and for you—and for a

town that is worth saving. Human lives are very, very precious. And now—here we

are.”

Matt had just turned onto the Saitous’ block. Meredith took a moment to openly

stare at the figure in the front passenger seat. “Mrs. Flowers!” she exclaimed.

This made Matt turn to stare in his turn and what he saw made him clip a

Volkswagen Jetta parked by the sidewalk.

“Mrs…. Flowers?”

“Please park now, Matt. You needn’t call me Mrs. Flowers if you don’t want to. I

have returned to the time when I was Theophilia—when my friends called me

Theo.”

“But—how—why—?” Matt stuttered.

“I told you. I felt that it was time. Sage left me a gift that helped me change. An

enemy beyond your powers to fight has arisen. I felt this back at the

boardinghouse. This is the time that I have been waiting for. The last battle with the

true enemy of Fell’s Church.”

Meredith’s heart actually seemed ready to fly out of her chest. She had to be

calm—calm and logical. She had seen magic many times. She knew the look of it,

the feel of it. But frequently she had been too busy comforting Bonnie, or too

worried about aiding Bonnie to take in what she was facing.

Now, it was just her and Matt—and Matt had a stricken, stupefied look, as if he

hadn’t seen enough magic before. As if he might crack.

“Matt,” she said loudly, and then even louder, “Matt!” He turned, then, to look at

her, with his blue eyes wild and dark.

“They’ll kill her, Meredith!” he said. “Shinichi and Misao—you don’t know what it