Лиза Смит - The Return - Midnight

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

“Come on,” Meredith said. “We have to make sure that it doesn’t kill her.”

The dazed look passed from Matt’s eyes. “We have to do this,” he agreed simply.

“Right,” said Meredith, finally releasing him. Together they got out of the car to stand by Mrs. Flowers — no, by Theo.

Theo had hair that hung almost to her waist; so fair that it looked silver in the moonlight. Her face was — electrifying. It was young; young and proud, with classic features and a look of quiet determination.

Somehow during the drive, her clothes had changed too. Instead of a coat covered with bits of paper, she was wearing a sleeveless white gown that ended in a slight train. In style, it reminded Meredith a little of the “mermaid” dress she herself had worn when going to a ball in the Dark Dimension. But Meredith’s dress had only made her look sultry. Theo looked…magnificent.

As for the Post-it Note amulets…somehow the paper had disappeared and the writing had grown enormously, changing into very large scrawls that wrapped around the white gown. Theo was literally swathed in haute couture arcane protection.

And although she was reed slender, she was tall. Taller than Meredith, taller than Matt, taller than Stefan, wherever he was in the Dark Dimensions. She was this tall not only because she had grown so much, but because the train of her dress was just brushing the ground. She had entirely overcome gravity. The whip, Sage’s present to her, was coiled into a circle attached to her waist, shining as silver as her hair.

Matt and Meredith simultaneously closed the SUV’s doors. Matt left the engine running for a quick getaway.

They walked around the garage so that they could see the front of the house.

Meredith, not caring what she looked like or whether she seemed cool or in control, wiped her hands, one and then the other, on her jeans. This was the stave’s firstand possibly only — true battle. What counted was not appearance, but performance.

Both she and Matt stopped dead when they saw the figure standing at the bottom of the steps in front of the porch. It was no one they could identify from the house.

But then the crimson lips opened, the delicate hands flew up to cover them, and wind-chime laughter came from somewhere behind the hands.

For a moment they could only stare, fascinated, at this woman who was dressed all in black. She was fully as tall as Theo, fully as slender and graceful, and she was floating equally high off the ground. But what Meredith and Matt were staring at was the fact that her hair was like Misao’s or Shinichi’s — but reversed. Whereas they had black hair with a crimson fringe on the bottom, this woman had crimson hairyards and yards of it, with a black fringe all around it. Not only that, but she had delicate black fox ears emerging from the crimson hair, and a long sleek crimson tail, tipped with black.

“Obaasan?” Matt gasped in disbelief.

“Inari!” Meredith snapped.

The lovely creature didn’t even look at them. She was staring at Theo in contempt. “Tiny witch of a tiny town,” she said. “You’ve used nearly all your Power just to stand up to my level. What good are you?”

“I have very small Powers,” Theo agreed. “But if the town is worthless, why has it taken you so long to destroy it? Why have you watched others try — or were they all your pawns, Inari? Katherine, Klaus, poor young Tyler — were they your pawns, Kitsune Goddess?”

Inari laughed — still that chiming, girlish giggling, behind her fingers. “I don’t need pawns! Shinichi and Misao are my bond-servants, as all kitsune are! If I have left them some freedom, it has been so they can get experience. We’ll go on to larger cities now, and ravage them.”

“You have to take Fell’s Church first,” Theo said steadily. “And I won’t let you do that.”

“You still don’t understand, do you? You are a human, with almost no Power left!

Mine is the largest star ball in the worlds! I am a Goddess!”

Theo lowered her head, then lifted it to look Inari in the eyes. “Do you want to know what I think the truth is, Inari?” she said. “I think that you have come to the end of a long, long, but not immortal life. I think you have dwindled so that at last you need to use a great deal of Power from your star ball — wherever it is — to appear this way. You are a very, very ancient woman and you have been setting children against their own parents, and parents against children across the world because you envy the children’s youth. You have even come to envy Shinichi and Misao, and let them be hurt, as revenge.”

Matt and Meredith looked at each other with wide eyes. Inari was breathing rapidly, but it seemed she couldn’t think of anything to say.

“You’ve even pretended to have entered a ‘second childhood’ to behave girlishly.

But none of it satisfies you, because the plain, sad truth is that you have come to the end of your long, long lifetime — no matter how great your Power. We must all take that final journey, and it is your turn now.”

“Liar!” shrieked Inari, looking for a moment more glorious — more radiant than before. But then Meredith saw why. Her scarlet hair had actually begun to smolder, framing her face in a dancing red light. And at last she spoke venemously.

“Well, then, if you think this is my last battle, I must be sure to cause all the pain I can. Starting with you, witch.”

Meredith and Matt both gasped. They were afraid for Theo, especially as Inari’s hair was braiding itself into thick ropes like serpents that floated around her head as if she were Medusa.

The gasps were a mistake — they attracted Inari’s attention. But she didn’t move.

She only said, “Smell that sweet scent on the wind? A roast sacrifice! I think the result will be oishii — delicious! But perhaps you two would like to speak to Orime or Isobel one last time. I’m afraid they can’t come out to see you.”

Meredith’s heart was pounding violently in her throat, as she realized that the Saitous’ house was on fire. It seemed as if there were several small fires burning, but she was terrified at the implication that Inari had already done something to the mother and daughter.

“No, Matt!” she cried, grabbing Matt’s arm. He would have charged straight at the laughing black-clad woman and tried to attack her feet — and seconds were invaluable now. “Come help me find them!”

Theo came to their aid. Drawing up the white bullwhip, she whirled it once around her head and cracked it precisely on Inari’s raised hands, leaving a bloody gash on one. As a furious Inari turned back to her, Meredith and Matt ran.

“The back door,” Matt said as they careered around the side of the house. Up ahead they saw a wooden fence, but no gate. Meredith was just considering using the stave to pole-vault, when Matt panted, “Here!” and made a cradle of his hands for her to step into. “I’ll boost you over!”

Meredith hesitated only an instant. Then, as he skidded to a stop she jumped to place one foot in his inter-locked fingers. Suddenly she was flying upward. She made the most of it, landing, catlike, on the fence’s flat top, and then jumping down.

She could hear Matt scrambling up the fence as she was suddenly surrounded by black smoke. She jumped backward three feet and yelled, “Matt, the smoke is dangerous! Get low; hold your breath. Stay outside to help them when I bring them out!”

Meredith had no idea whether Matt would listen to her or not, but she obeyed her own rules, crouching low, breath held, opening her eyes briefly to try to find the door.