Лиза Смит - The Return - Midnight

He took the shaken-looking Mrs. Flowers to a chair on the left side of the foyer.

“Did that — person — hurt you?”

“No, no. Just get them out of my house, Stefan, dear, and I’ll be most grateful,” Mrs. Flowers replied.

“Done,” Stefan said softly. “I’m sorry we’ve caused you so much trouble — in your own home.” He looked at each of the sheriffs, his eyes piercing. “Go away and don’t come back. You have searched the house, but none of the people you were looking for were here. You think further surveillance will yield nothing. You believe that you would do more good by helping the — what was it? Oh, yes, the mayhem in the town of Fell’s Church. You will never come here again. Now go back to your car and leave.”

Elena felt the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She could feel the Power behind Stefan’s words.

And, as always, it was satisfying to see cruel or angry people become docile under the power of a vampire’s Influence. These two stood for another ten seconds quite still, and then they simply walked out the front door.

Elena listened to the sound of the sheriff’s car driving away and such a strong feeling of relief washed over her that she almost collapsed. Stefan put his arms around her, and Elena hugged him back tightly, knowing that her heart was pounding. She could feel it in her chest and her fingertips.

It’s all over. All done now, Stefan thought to her and Elena suddenly felt something different. She felt pride. Stefan had simply taken charge and chased the officers away.

Thank you, she thought to Stefan.

“I guess we’d better get Matt out of the root cellar,” she added.

Matt was unhappy. “Thanks for hiding me — but do you know how long that was?” he demanded of Elena when they were upstairs again. “And no light except what was in that little star ball. And no sound — I couldn’t hear a thing down there. And what is this?” He held out the long, heavy wooden staff, with its strangely shaped, spiked ends.

Elena felt sudden panic. “You didn’t cut yourself, did you?” She snatched up Matt’s hands, letting the long staff fall to the ground. But Matt didn’t seem to have a single scratch.

“I wasn’t dumb enough to hold it by the ends,” he said.

“Meredith did, for some reason,” Elena said. “Her palms were covered with wounds. And I don’t even know what it is.”

“I do,” Stefan said quietly. He picked up the stave. “But it’s Meredith’s secret really. I mean it’s Meredith’s property,” he added hastily as all eyes fixed on him at the word secret.

“Well, I’m not blind,” Matt said in his frank, straightforward way, flipping back some fair hair in order to look more closely at the thing. He raised blue eyes to Elena. “I know what it smells like, which is vervain. And I know what it looks like with all those silver and iron spikes coming out of the sharp ends. It looks like a giant staff for exterminating every kind of Godawful Hellacious monster that walks on this earth.”

“And vampires, too,” Elena added hastily. She knew that Stefan was in a funny mood and she definitely didn’t want to see Matt, for whom she still cared deeply, lying on the floor with a crushed skull. “And even humans — I think these bigger spikes are for injecting poison.”

“Poison?” Matt looked at his own palms hastily.

“You’re okay,” Elena said. “I checked you, and besides it would be a very quickacting poison.”

“Yes, they would want to take you out of the fight as fast as possible,” Stefan said. “So if you’re alive now, you’re likely to stay that way. And now, this Godawful Hellacious monster just wants to get back up to bed.” He turned to go to the attic.

He must have heard Elena’s swift, involuntarily indrawn breath, because he turned around and she could see that he was sorry. His eyes were dark emerald, sad but blazing with unused Power.

I think we’ll have a late morning, Elena thought, feeling pleasurable thrills ripple through her. She squeezed Stefan’s hand, and felt him return the pressure. She could see what he had in mind; they were close enough and he was projecting pretty clearly what he wanted — and she was as eager to get upstairs as he was.

But at that moment Matt, eyes on the wickedly spiked staff, said, “Meredith has something to do with that?”

“I should never have said anything at all about it,” Stefan replied. “But if you want to know more, you’d really better ask Meredith herself. Tomorrow.”

“All right,” Matt said, finally seeming to understand. Elena was way ahead of him.

A weapon like that was — could only be — for killing all sorts of monsters walking the earth. And Meredith — Meredith who was as slim and athletic as a ballerina with a black belt, and oh! Those lessons! The lessons that Meredith had always put off if the girls were doing something at that exact moment, but that she always somehow managed to make time for.

But a girl could hardly be expected to carry a harpsichord around with her and nobody else had one. Besides, Meredith had said she hated to play, so her BFFs had let it go at that. It was all part of the Meredith mystique.

And riding lessons? Elena would bet some of them were genuine. Meredith would want to know how to make a quick escape mounting anything available.

But if Meredith wasn’t practicing for a little light music in the drawing room, or for starring in a Hollywood Western — then what would she have been doing?

Training, Elena guessed. There were a lot of dojos out there, and if Meredith had been doing this since that vampire attacked her grandfather she must be pretty darn good. And when we’ve fought grisly things, whose eyes have ever been on her, a soft gray shadow that kept out of the limelight? A lot of monsters probably got knocked out but good.

The only question that needed to be answered was why Meredith hadn’t shown them the Godawful Hellacious monster staker or used it in any fights — say against Klaus — until now. And Elena didn’t know, but she could ask Meredith herself.

Tomorrow, when Meredith was up. But she trusted that it had some simple answer.

Elena tried to stifle a yawn in a ladylike way. Stefan? she asked. Can you get us out of here — without picking me up — and to your room?

“I think we’ve all had enough stress this morning,” Stefan said in his own gentle voice. “Mrs. Flowers, Meredith is in the first-floor bedroom — she’ll probably sleep very late. Matt—”

“I know, I know. I don’t know where the schedule went but I might as well make it my night.” Matt presented an arm to Stefan.

Stefan looked surprised. Darling, you can never have too much blood, Elena thought to him, seriously and straightforwardly.

“Mrs. Flowers and I will be in the kitchen,” she said aloud.

When they were there, Mrs. Flowers said, “Don’t forget to thank Stefan for defending the boardinghouse for me.”

“He did it because it’s our home,” Elena said, and went back into the hall, where Stefan was thanking a flushing Matt.

And then Mrs. Flowers called Matt into the kitchen and Elena found herself swooped up in lithe, hard arms and then they were gaining altitude rapidly, with the wood staircase emitting little creaks and groans of protest. And finally they were in Stefan’s room and Elena was in Stefan’s arms.

There was no better place to be, or anything else either of them really wanted now, Elena thought and turned her face up as Stefan turned his down and they began with a long slow kiss. And then the kiss went molten, and Elena had to cling to Stefan, who was already holding her with arms that could have cracked granite, but only squeezed her exactly as tightly as she wanted them to.