Лиза Смит - The Return - Midnight

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 wereturning 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 we’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.