The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 17

Once he got popside, Stefan remembered that Elena had interpreted his automobile. round into the forestland, he began to run, using his shell to speed his pace. The pounding of his feet seemed to thud, condom her, Guard her.He knew w present Tyler Smal wood had lived. After Tyler had attacked Elena at a dance, it had made sense to h middle-aged back an eye on him. Stefan burst from the woods at the edge of the Smal woods property.They owned an ill-favored house, in Stefans opinion. An inaccurate portrayal of an old Southern manor estate, it was too whopping for the lawn it sat on and bulged with unnecessary columns and torment rococo decorations. vindicatory looking at it, Stefan had been able to tel that the Smal woods had much bullion than taste, and that the architects whod designed it werent educated in admittedly classical forms.He rang the bel at the front door, then froze. What if Mr. or Mrs. Smal wood answered the bel ? He would invite to form them to give hi m as much instruction as they could about Caleb, and then to leave Stefan had been in that location. He hoped he had the indicant to do it He hadnt been eating enough, not thus fartide of animal blood. merely no adept came. After a a couple of(prenominal) seconds, Stefan move questing tendrils of Power with the house. It was empty. He couldnt go in, couldnt search Calebs room like he wanted to. Without an invitation, he was stuck out present. He wandered around the house, peering through the windows, simply determination nothing out of the ordinary separate than entirely too many adorn frames and mirrors. Behind the house he prove a smal white shed. direct Power toward it, he matt-up something slightly saturnine. Just the slightest tinge of darkness, a aspect of frustration and il intent.The shed was pad interlocked, simply the lock was easy enough to snap. And as no one lived here, he didnt need an invitation to enter.The start thing he saw was Elenas face. pu blisher clippings and photos were tacked al ever soywhere the wal s Elena, seemly, Meredith, himself. On the floor was a pentagram with much pictures and roses.Stefans certainty that something was rail at solidified. Elena was in danger. Sending Power before him, searching desperately for any trace of her, he took transfer running again.As she drove forth from the florists, Elena turned the conversation with Stefan over and over in her mind. What was going on with him since theyd let back to Fel s Church? It felt like there was severalise of him that he was holding back, hiding from her. She remembered the loneliness, the sinking, dizzy flavoring of isolation that she had sensed when she kissed him. Was it Damons loss that was changing Stefan?Damon. Just the purview of him was enough to cause an almost physical pain in her. Mercurial, difficult, beautiful Damon. Dangerous. Loving, in his own port. The thought of his name, written in water plants across Merediths legs, floated through her mind.She didnt know what it meant. But there was no hope. She needed to stop finesse to herself about that. She had seen Damon die. Yet it seemed impossible that someone as complex and strong and manifestly undefeatable as Damon could be gone so quickly and so simply. But that was the federal agency it happened, wasnt it? She should know that death didnt often fill in with a grand show, that it usual y came when you were least expecting it. She had known that before al this al this stuff with vampires and werewolves and evil qabalistic opponents. She had known al about the abruptness and simplicity of death for years, back when she was unsloped normal Elena Gilbert, who didnt believe in anything supernatural, not even horoscopes or fortune-tel ing, much slight monsters.She glanced at the passenger seat conterminous to her, where there lay the bouquet of pinkish roses she had picked up to give to Margaret. And, next to them, a simple bunch of forget-me -nots. Like Id ever forget, she thought. Elena remembered riding in the car toward hearth with her parents and baby Margaret on an ordinary sunlight afternoon. It had been a beautiful sunny fal day, the leaves of the trees by the roadside just beg ordering to be painted with red and gold.Theyd gone to luncheon at a little inn out in the country. Margaret, who was teething, had been cranky at the restaurant, and theyd taken turns walking her up and implement on the porch of the inn for a few minutes at a cartridge holder while the others ate. But in the car she was letup, half drowsing, her light golden lashes zip down to rest for eternal and longer periods against her cheeks.Elenas return had been driving, she remembered, and the radio had been tuned to the local rate so he could catch the news. Her aim had move to look at Elena in the backseat, her sapphire blue eyes so like Elenas own. Her golden h propagate, touched with a little gray, was pul ed back in a French braid , elegant and practical. Smiling, she had state, Do you know what I think would be nice?What? asked Elena, smiling back at her. Then she saw a unidentified glitter, high in the sky, and leaned forward without waiting for a reply. Daddy, whats that? Shed pointed upward.Elena never prepare out what her mother had thought would be nice. Her father never answered what that was. The last things Elena remembered were sounds her fathers gasp and the yawp of the cars tires. Everything after that was blank, until Elena had woken up in the hospital, aunty Judith by her bedside, and learned that her parents were dead. They had died before the paramedics had even pried them out of the car.Before they restored Fel s Church, the Guardians had told Elena that she should have died in that accident, and that her parents should have lived. The glitter had been their air car, and Elena had distracted her father at the tally possible moment, causing al the wrong people to die. She could feel the w eight of it now, the fault at surviving, her anger at the Guardians. She glanced at the dashboard clock. at that rear was stil plenty of m before she had to be at Margarets recital. Turning off the highway, she pul ed into the cemeterys parking lot.Elena park the car and walked briskly through the newer part of the cemetery, carrying the forget-me-nots. Birds were chirping gaily overhead. So much had happened in this cemetery in the last year. Bonnie had seen one of her for the first time visions among these tombstones. Stefan had fol owed her here, watching her secretly when she thought he was just the beautiful new guy at school. Damon had well drained an old tramp to a lower place the bridge. Katherine had chased Elena out of the cemetery with indistinctness and ice and a far-reaching, far-seeing evil. And, of course, Elena had driven off a bridge to her death here by the cemetery, at the end of that first life, the one that seemed so long past now.Elena picked her way past an ornate marble memorial to Fel s Churchs Civil fight veterans and down to the shady glen where her parents were buried. The tiny wild flower bouquet she and Stefan had left twain age before had withered, and Elena threw it away and put the forget-menots in its place. She picked a bit of moss off her fathers name.The lightest crush of gravel sounded from the path behind her, and Elena whirled around. There was no one there.Im just jumpy, she muttered to herself. Her voice sounded oddly loud in the quiet of the cemetery. Nothing to worry about, she said more firmly.She settled in the grass by her parents graves and traced the letters on her mothers mainstay with one exceed.Hi, she said. Its been a while since Ive echt y sat here and talked to you, I know. Im sorry. An awful lot has happened She swal owed. Im sorry, too, because I found out that you werent supposed to die when you did. I asked the Guardians to to bring you back, but they said you had move on to a bette r place and they couldnt reverse that. I wish Im gladsome youre happy wherever you are, but I stil miss you.Elena sighed, lowered her hand from the gravestone, and trailed it through the grass by her knees. Somethings after me again, she go along unhappily. After al of us, I guess, but Bonnie said I brought it here when she was in a trance. And later she said he wants me. I dont know if its two different people or some(prenominal) after us, or just one. But its constantly me the bad things focus on. She twisted a blade of grass surrounded by her fingers. I wish things could be simpler for me, the way they are for other girls.Sometimes Im so glad to have Stefan, and glad I could help protect Fel s Church, but its hard. Its real y hard. A illegitimate child was building in her throat and she swal owed it back. And Stefans always been there for me, but I feel like I dont know al of him anymore, especial y because I cant run down his thoughts. Hes so tense, and its like he nec essarily to be in control al the timeSomething shifted behind her, just the slightest tweak of movement. She felt a warm, damp pushover like a breath on the back of her neck.Elena whipped her head around. Caleb was crouching behind her, so close they were almost nose-to-nose. She screamed, but Caleb slapped his hand over her mouth, muffling her cry.