The Return: Nightfall Chapter 16

Stefan was surprised to find Mrs. Flowers waiting for them when they returned from their picnic. And, also unusu completelyy, she had something to say that didnt involve her gardens.There is a meat for you upstairs, she said, jerking her head toward the narrow staircase. It came from a dark issue fellow he savoured somewhat akin you. He wouldnt leave a word with me. Just asked where to leave a message.Dark fellow? Damon? Elena asked.Stefan agitate his head. What would he want to be leaving me messages for?He leave Elena with Mrs. Flowers and hastened up the crazy, zigzagging stairs. At the top he be a piece of paper stuffed under the door.It was a Thinking of You menu, sans envelope. Stefan, who knew his brother, doubted that it had been paid for with m unmatchabley, at least. Inside, in heavy black felt-tipped pen, were the wordsDONT NEED THIS.THOUGHT ST. STEFAN MIGHT.MEET ME TONIGHT AT THE TREEWHERE THE gentle domain CRASHED.NO LATER THAN 430A.M .ILL GIVE YOU THE SCOOP. D.That was allexcept for a Web address.Stefan was about to throw out the label in the waste basketball hoop when curiosity assailed him. He turned on thecomputer, directed it to the proper website, and watched. For a while, nothing happened. Then real dark gray letters on a black subterfuge appeared. To a human, it would contract appeared to be a completely blank screen. To vampires, with their in high spiritser visual acuity, the gray on black was faint nevertheless clear.Tired of that lapis lazuli?Want to take a vacation in Hawaii?Sick of that akin old liquid cuisine?Come and visit Shi no Shi.Stefan st machinati mavind to conterminous the page, precisely something stop him. He sat and stared at the inconspicuous little ad beneath the song until he heard Elena at the door. He quickly closed the computer and went to take the picnic basket from her. He said nothing about the note or what hed seen on the computer screen. and as the night went on, he legal opinion more an d more.Oh Stefan, youll break my ribs You squeezed all my breath outIm sorry. I respectable need to hold you.Well, I need to hold you, too.Thank you, angel.Everything was quiet in the room with the high ceiling. One window was open, letting the moon erupt with. In the sky, even the moon seemed to creep stealthily along, and the tool of moonlight followed it on the hardwood floor.Damon smiled. He had had a long, restful day and directly he meant to have an arouse night.Getting through the window wasnt quite as easy as hed take careed. When he arrived as a huge, glossy black crow, he was expecting to balance on the windowsill and change to human form to open the window. simply the window had a trap on it it was linked by Power to one of the intermissioners inside. Damon puzzled over it, preening himself viciously, afraid to put some(prenominal) tension on that thin link, when something arrived beside him in a flutter of wings.It looked bid no respectable crow ever register ed in the sighting book of any ornithologist. It was sleek enough, but its wings were tipped with scarlet, and it had golden, shining look.Shinichi?Damon asked.Who else?came the reply as a golden eye fixed on him.I see you have a problem. But it target be fixed. Ill deepen their sleep so that you can cut the link.DontDamon said reflexively.If you so such(prenominal) as touch either of them, Stefan will The answer came in soothing tones.Stefans unsloped a boy, phone? Trust me. You do swan me, dont you?And it worked out exactly as the demonically colored bird said it would. The sleepers inside slept more deeply, and on that pointfore more deeply still.A split second later the window opened, and Damon changed form and was inside. His brother andand shethe one he alwayshad to watchshewas lying asleep, her golden vibrissa lying crossways the remain and lying across his brothers body.Damon tore his eyes away. There was a medium-sized, some outdated computer on the desk in the corner. He went over to it and without the sligh raise hesitation turned it on. The twain on the bed never stirred.Filesaha.Diary. How original a name. Damon opened it and examined the contents.Dear Diary,I woke up this morning and admiration of marvels Immeagain. I walk, prate, drink, wet the bed ( substantially, I havent yet, but Im sure I could if I tried).Im back.Its been one madhouse of a journey.I died, dearest Diary, I rattling died. And then I died as a vampire. And dont expect me to describe what happened either time debate me you had to be there.The important thing is that I was bypast, but now Im back again and, oh, dear patient whizz who has been keeping my secrets since kindergartenI am so blithe to be back.On the debit side, I can never live with Aunt Judith or Margaret again. They look Im resting in peace with the angels. On the credit side, I can live with Stefan.This is the compensation for all Ive been through I dont know how to compensate those who went to the very gates of Hell forme. Oh, Im tired and might as well say it eager for a night with my darling.Im very happy. We had a fine day, laughing and loving, and watching separately of my friends faces as they saw mealive (And notinsane, which I gather is how I have been acting the past few days. Honestly, youd prize Great Spirits Inna Sky could have dropped me off with my marbles all in order. Oh, well.)Love ya,ElenaDamons eyes skimmed over these lines impatiently. He was looking for something quite different. Ah. Yes. This was more like itMy dearest Elena,I knew you would look here sooner or later. I hope you never have to see it at all. If youre culture this, then Damon is a traitor, or something else has gone terribly wrong.A traitor? That seemed a little strong, Damon thought, hurt, but also burning with an intense desire to get on with his task.Im going out to the woods to talk to him tonight if I dont come back, youll know where to start asking questions.The tru th is that I dont exactly determine the situation. Earlier today, Damon sent me a card with a Web address on it. Ive put the card under your pillow, love.Oh damn, thought Damon. It was going to be hard to get that card without waking her. But he had to do it.Elena, follow this Web link. Youll have to dither with the brightness controls because its been created for vampire eyes hardly. What the link seems to be saying is that there is a place calledShi no Shi literally translated, it says, asthe Death of Death, where they can remove this damn which has haunted me for almost half a millennium. They use magic and science in combination to limit former vampires to simple men and women, boys and girls.If they truly can do this, Elena, we can be together for as long as ordinary people live. Thats all I ask of life.I want it. I want to have the chance to stand before you as an ordinary breathing, eating human.But dont worry.Im just going to talk with Damon about this. You dont need t o command me to stay. I would never leave you with all the goings-on in Fells Church right now. Its too dangerous for you, especially with your new blood and your new aura.I micturate that Im trusting Damon more than I probably should. But of one thing I am receivedhe would never harm you.He loves you. How can he divine service it?Still, I have to meet with him at least, on his terms, alone at a particular location in the wood. Then well see what we see.As I said before, if youre reading this letter, it means that something has gone drastically wrong. Defend yourself, love. Dont be afraid. Trust yourself. And trust your friends. They can all help you.I trust Matts instinctive protectiveness for you, Merediths judgment, and Bonnies intuition. Tell them to remember that.Im hoping that you never have to read this,with all my love, my heart, my soul,StefanP.S. Just in case, there is $20,000 in hundred-dollar bills under the second floorboard from the wall, across from the bed. Right now the rocking chair is over it. Youll see the crack easily if you move the chair.Carefully, Damon deleted the words in this file. Then, with one corner of his mouth quirked up, he carefully, silently typed in new words with a quite an different meaning. He read them over. He smiled brilliantly. Hed always fancied himself a writer no clod training of course, but he felt he had an instinctive flair for it.And that was Step One accomplished, Damon thought, conservation the file with his words instead of Stefans.Then, noiselessly, he walked to where Elena was sleeping, spooned behind Stefan on the narrow bed.Now for Step Two.Slowly, very slowly, Damon slipped his fingers under the pillow on which Elenas head rested. He could feel Elenas hair where it spilled on her pillow in the moonlight, and the ache that it awoke was more in his chest than in his canines. Inching his fingers under the pillow, he searched for something smooth.Elena murmured in her sleep and abruptly turned over . Damon almost jumped back into the shadows, but Elenas eyes were shut, her lashes a thick inky crescent on her cheeks.She was facing him now, but strangely Damon didnt find himself tracing the pitiful veins in her fair, smooth skin. He found himself staring hungrily at her slightly parted lips. They werealmost impossible to resist. Even in sleep they were the color of rose petals, slightly moist, and parted that way.I could do it very lightly. She would never know. I could, I know I could. I feel invincible tonight.As he bent toward her his fingers moved(p) cardboard.It seemed to jerk him out of a dream world. What had he been theoriseing? Risking everything, all his plans, for akiss ? There would be softwood of time for kisses and other, much more important things later.He slipped the little card out from under the pillow and put it in his pocket.Then he became a crow and vanished from the windowsill.Stefan had long ago perfected the art of sleeping only until a certain mome nt, then awakening. He did this now, glancing at the clock on the blanket to confirm that it was fourA.M . exactly.He didnt want to awaken Elena.He dressed soundlessly and exited the window by the same route his brother had only as a set up. Somewhere, he was sure Damon was being made a fool by someone using malachs to make him their puppet. And Stefan, still pumped up with Elenas blood, felt that he had a duty to stop them.The note Damon had delivered had directed him to the tree where the mankind had crashed. Damon would also want to continually revisit that tree until hed traced the malach puppets to their puppeteer.He swooped, drifted, and once almost gave a mouse a heart flack catcher by stooping down on it suddenly before rocketing skyward again.And then, in midair, as he saw evidence of a car hitting a tree, he changed from a glorious hawk to a young man with dark hair, a pale face, and intensely green eyes.He drifted, light as a snowflake, down to the ground and gazed i n each direction, using all his vampire senses to test the area. He could feel nothing of a trap no animosity, just the unmistakable signs of the trees violent fight. He stayed human to climb the tree that bore the psychic imprint of his brother.He wasnt chilly as he climbed the oak his brother had been lounging in when the accident had taken place at his feet. He had too much of Elenas blood running through him to feel the cold. But he was apprised that this area of the forest was oddly cold that something was keeping it that way. why? Hed already claimed the rivers and forests that ran through Fells Church, so why take up lodgement here without telling him? Whatever it was, it would have to present itself before him eventually, if it wanted to stay in Fells Church. why wait? he wondered, as he squatted on the branch.He felt Damons presence coming at him long before his senses would have noticed it in the days before Elenas transformation, and he kept himself from flinching. so rt of he turned with his back to the trunk of the tree and looked outward. He could feel Damon speeding toward him, faster and faster, stronger and stronger and then Damon should have been there, standing before him, but he wasnt.Stefan fr possess.It always pays to look up, little brother, advised a charming voice above him, and then Damon, who had been clinging to the tree like a lizard, did a forward befuddle and landed on Stefans branch.Stefan said nothing, merely examining his older brother. At last he said, Youre in beneficial spirits.Ive had a sumptuous day, Damon said. Shall I name them off to you? There was the greeting-card shop girlElizabeth, and my dear friend Damaris, whose husband works in Bronston, and little young Teresa who volunteers at the library, andStefan sighed. Sometimes I think you could remember the name of every girl youve bled in your life, but you forget my name on a incessant basis, he said.Nonsenselittle brother. Now, since Elena has undoubtedly exp lained to you just what happened when I tried to rescue your miniature enchant Bonnie I feel Im due an apology.And sinceyou sent me a note that I can only construe as provocative, I really feelIm due an explanation.Apology first, Damon rapped out. And then, in long-suffering tones, Im sure you think its bad enough, having ensured Elena when she was dying that you would look after me forever. But you never seem to realize that I had to promise the same thing, and Im not exactly the caretaking type. Now that shes not dead anymore, maybe we should just forget it.Stefan sighed again. each(prenominal) right, all right. I apologize. I was wrong. I shouldnt have thrown you out. Is that enough?Im not sure you really mean it. Try it once more, with feel Damon, what in Gods name was the website about?Oh. I thought it was rather clever they got the colors so close that only vampires or witches or such could read it, whereas humans would just see a blank screen.But how did you find out a bout it?Ill tell you in a moment. But just think of it, little brother. You and Elena, on the perfect little honeymoon, just two more humans in a world of humans. The sooner you go, the sooner you can sing nick Dong, the Corpse Is DeadI still want to know how youjust happened to come across this website.All right. I keep back it Ive been suckered into the age of technology at last. I have my own website. And a very helpful young man contacted me just to see whether I really meant the things I said on it or if I was just a frustrated idealist. I figured that description fit you.You a website? I dont believe Damon ignored him. I passed the message along because Id already heard of the place, theShi no Shi .TheDeath of Death , it said.Thats how it was translated to me. Damon turned a thousand-kilowatt smile on Stefan, boring into him, until finally Stefan turned away, feeling as if hed been exposed to the sun without his lapis ring.As a matter of fact, Damon went on chattily, Ive i nvited the fellow himself to come and to explain it to you.You didwhich ?He should be here at 444 exactly. Dont blame me for the timing its something special to him.And then with very little fuss, and certainly no Power at all that Stefan could discern, something landed in the tree above them and dropped down to their branch, changing as it did.It was, indeed, a young man, with fire-tipped black hair and serene golden eyes. As Stefan swung toward him, he held up two hands in a gesture of helplessness and surrender.Who the hell are you?Im the hell Shinichi, the young man said easily. But, as I told your brother, most people call me just Shinichi. Of course, its up to you.And you know all about the Shi no Shi.Nobody knows all about it. Its a place and an organization. Im a little fond(p) to it because Shinichi looked shy well, I guess I just like to help people.And now you want to help me.If you truly want to become humanI know a way.Ill just leave the two of you to talk about it , shall I? said Damon. Threes a crowd, especially on this branch.Stefan looked at him sharply. If you have any slightest thought of stopping by the boardinghouseWith Damaris already waiting for me? Honestly, little brother. And Damon changed to crow form before Stefan could ask him to give his sworn word.Elena turned over in bed, reaching automatically for a fond(p) body next to her. What her fingers found, however, was a cool, Stefan-shaped hollow. Her eyes opened. Stefan?The darling. They were so in tune that it was like being one person he always knew when she was about to wake up. Hed probably gone down to get her breakfast Mrs. Flowers always had it steaming hot for him when he went down (further proof that she was a witch of the black-and-blue variety) and Stefan brought up the tray.Elena, she said, testing her old-new voice just to hear herself talk. Elena Gilbert, girl, you have had too many breakfasts in bed. She patted her stomach. Yes, definitely in need of exercise. All right, then, she said, still aloud. Start with limbering up and breathing. Then some mild stretching. All of which, she thought, could be put aside when Stefan showed up.But Stefan didnt show up, even when she lay exhausted from a full hours routine.And he wasnt coming up the stairs, bringing up a cup of tea, either.Where was he?Elena looked out their one-view window and caught a glimpse of Mrs. Flowers below.Elenas heart had begun beating hard during her aerobic exercise and had never really slowed down properly. though it was likely impossible to start a conversation with Mrs. Flowers this way she shouted down, Mrs. Flowers?And, wonder of wonders, the lady stopped pinning a sheet on the clothesline and looked up. Yes, Elena dear?Wheres Stefan?The sheet billowed around Mrs. Flowers and made her disappear. When the billow straightened out, she was gone.But Elena had her eyes on the laundry basket. It was still there. She shouted, Dont go away and hastened to put on jeans and her new blue top. Then, hopping down the stairs as she buttoned, she burst out into the back garden.Mrs. FlowersYes, Elena dear?Elena could just see her amongst billowing yards of white fabric. Have you seen Stefan?Not this morning, dear.Not atall ?I get up with the dawn, regular. His car was gone then, and it hasnt come back.Now Elenas heart was pounding in good earnest. Shed always been afraid of something like this. She took one deep breath and ran back up the staircase without pausing.Note, noteHed never leave her without a note. And there was no note on his pillow. Then she thought ofher pillow.Her hands scrabbled frantically under it, and then under his pillow. At first she didnt turn the pillows over, because she wanted so badly for the note to be there and because she was so afraid of what it might say.At last, when it was clear that there was nothing under those pillows but the bed sheet, she flipped them and stared at the empty white blankness for a long time. Then she pull ed the bed away from the wall, in case the note had fallen down behind it.Somehow she felt that if she just kept looking, she must find it. In the end shed shaken out all the bedding and ended up staring at the white sheets again, accusingly, ever so often running her hands over them.And that ought to be good, because it meant Stefan hadntgone somewhere except that shed left the closet door open and she could see, without even meaning to, a bunch of empty hangers.Hed taken all his clothes.And emptiness on the bottom of the closet.Hed taken every pair of shoes.Not that he had ever owned much. But everything that he needed to make a trip away was gone and he was gone.Why? Where? Howcould he?Even if it turned out that hed left in order to scout them out a new place to live, howcould he? Hed get the fight of his life when he came back if he came back.Chilled to the bone, aware that tears were running unmeant and almost unnoticed down her cheeks, she was about to call up Meredith and Bonnie when she thought of something.Her diary.