Лиза Смит - The Return - Shadow Souls

“As for why he’d leave: I think he got the wrong idea about you and me — or maybe the right idea a little early”—Damon raised his eyebrows at Elena and she threw a pillow at him—“and decided to let us have some privacy. As for why Fell’s Church…” Damon shrugged. “Look, you’ve known the guy longer than I have. But even I can tell he’s the Galahad type. The parfait gentil knight, sans peur et sans reproche . If I had to say I’d say he went to meet Caroline’s charges.”

“Oh, no ,” Elena said, going to the door as a knock sounded. “Not after I told him and told him—”

“Oh, yes ,” Damon said, assuming a slight crouching position. “Even with your sage advice ringing in his ears—”

The door opened. It was Bonnie. Bonnie, with her petite frame, her curly strawberry hair, her wide, soulful brown eyes. Elena, in a state to disbelieve the evidence of her own eyes, and still not through with the argument with Damon, shut the door on her.

“Matt’s going to get lynched ,” Elena almost screamed, vaguely annoyed that some knocking was going on somewhere.

Damon uncrouched. He passed Elena on the way to the door, said, “I think you’d better sit down,” and then sat her down by putting her in a chair and holding her there until she stopped trying to get up again.

Then he opened the door.

This time it was Meredith knocking. Tall and willowy, with her hair falling in dark clouds around her shoulders, Meredith radiated the intention to go on knocking until the door stayed open. Something happened inside Elena, and she found that she could get her mind around more than one subject at once.

It was Meredith. And Bonnie. In Sedona, Arizona!

Elena leaped up from the chair where Damon had put her and flung her arms around Meredith, saying incoherently, “You came! You came! You knew I couldn’t call you, so you came!”

Bonnie edged around the embrace and said to Damon in an undertone, “Is she back to kissing everyone she meets?”

“Unfortunately,” Damon said, “no. But be prepared to be squeezed to death.”

Elena turned on him. “I heard that! Oh, Bonnie! I just can’t believe you two are really here. I wanted to talk to you so much!”

Meanwhile, she was hugging Bonnie, and Bonnie was hugging her, and Meredith was hugging both of them. Subtle velociraptor sisterhood signals were being passed from one to another at the same time — an arched eyebrow here , a slight nod there, a frown and shrug ending with a sigh. Damon didn’t know it, but he had just been accused, tried, acquitted, and restored to duty — with the conclusion that extra surveillance was necessary in the future.

Elena snapped out of it first. “You must have met with Matt — he had to tell you about this place.”

“He did, and then he sold the Prius and we sort of packed on the run and got plane tickets here and we’ve been waiting — we didn’t want to miss you!” Bonnie said breathlessly.

“I don’t suppose that would have been just about two days ago that you bought your tickets here,” Damon asked the ceiling wearily as he lounged with an elbow on Elena’s chair.

“Let me see—” Bonnie began, but Meredith said flatly, “Yes it was. What? It made something happen to you?”

“We were trying to keep things slightly ambiguous for the enemy,” Damon said. “But as it turns out, it probably didn’t matter.”

No, Elena thought, because Shinichi can reach inside your brain whenever he wants and try to take away your memories and all you can do is try to fight him off.

“But it does mean that Elena and I should start off right away.” Damon continued. “I have to do an errand first. Elena should pack. Take as little as you can, just the absolute essentials — but include food for two or three days.”

“You said…starting now ?” Bonnie breathed, and then she sat down abruptly on the floor.

“It makes sense, if we’ve already lost the element of surprise,” Damon replied.

“I can’t believe you two came to say good-bye to me while Matt watches over the town,” Elena said. “That is so sweet !” She smiled radiantly before adding, in her own mind, And so dumb!

“Well—”

“Well, I still have an errand,” Damon said, waving without turning around. “Let’s say we’ll leave here in half an hour.”

“Stingy,” Bonnie complained, when the door was safely shut behind him. “That might have only given us a few minutes to talk before we start.”

“I can pack in less than five minutes,” Elena said sadly, and then got tangled up in Bonnie’s previous sentence. “‘ Before we start ’?”

“I can’t pack just essentials at all,” Meredith was fretting quietly. “I couldn’t store everything on my mobile, and I have no idea when I’ll be able to recharge the batteries. I’ve got a suitcase of stuff on paper !”

Elena was looking back and forth at them nervously. “Um, I’m pretty sure I’m the one who’s supposed to be packing,” she said. “Because I’m the only one going…right?” Another look back and forth.

“As if we would let you set off into some other universe without us!” Bonnie said. “You need us!”

“Not another universe; only another dimension,” Meredith said. “But the same principle applies.”

“But — I can’t let you come with me!”

“Of course you can’t. I’m older than you,” Meredith said. “You don’t ‘let’ me do anything. But the truth is that we have a mission. We want to find Shinichi’s or Misao’s star ball if we can. If we could do that we think we could stop most of the stuff going on in Fell’s Church immediately.”

“Star ball?” Elena said blankly, while somewhere in the depths of her mind, an uneasy image stirred.

“I’ll explain later.”

Elena was shaking her head. “But — you left Matt to deal with whatever supernatural stuff is going on? When he’s a fugitive and has to hide from the police?”

“Elena, even the police are scared of Fell’s Church now — and frankly, if they put him in custody in Ridgemont it might be the safest place for him. But they’re not going to do that. He’s working with Mrs. Flowers and they’re good together; they’re a solid team.” Meredith stopped to take a breath, and seemed to be considering how to say something.

Bonnie said it for her in a very small voice. “And I was no good, Elena. I’d started — well, I started to get hysterical and see and hear things that weren’t there — or at least to imagine them and maybe even make them come true. I was scaring myself out of my mind, and I think I actually was putting people in danger. Matt’s too practical to do that.” She dabbed at her eyes. “I know the Dark Dimension is pretty bad, but at least I won’t be able to put houses full of innocent people in danger.”

Meredith nodded. “It was all…going bad with Bonnie there. Even if we hadn’t wanted to come with you I would have had to get her out. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but I believe that the demons there were after her. And that since Stefan’s gone, Damon may be the only one who can keep them away. Or maybe you can help her, Elena?”

Meredith…overly dramatic? But Elena could see the fine tremors running under Meredith’s skin, and the light sheen of perspiration on Bonnie’s forehead that was dampening her curls.

Meredith touched Elena’s wrist. “We haven’t just gone AWOL or anything. Fell’s Church is a war zone now; it’s true, but we didn’t leave Matt without allies. Like Dr. Alpert — she’s logical — she’s the best country doctor there is — and she might even convince somebody that Shinichi and the malach are real. But besides all that, the parents have taken over. Parents and psychiatrists and newshounds. And they make it almost impossible to work openly anyway. Matt’s not at any disadvantage.”