07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

“I’ll bring it,” Elena offered, getting up promptly from where she was sitting on his lap.
Matt started slightly and looked at Mrs. Flowers as Elena went to the door of the root cellar and
pushed. Nothing moved and Mrs. Flowers simply watched benignly. It was Stefan who rose to help
her, still limping. Then Matt and Meredith got up, Meredith asking, “Mrs. Flowers, are you sure we
should keep the star ball in that same safe?”
“Mama says we’re doing the right thing,” Mrs. Flowers answered serenely.
After that things happened very fast.
As if they’d rehearsed it, Meredith pressed the exact place to open the root cellar door.
Elena fell to her hands and knees. Faster than even he had imagined he could go, Matt went barreling
toward Stefan with one shoulder down. Mrs. Flowers was frantically pulling great swaths of dried
herbs down from where they hung above the kitchen table.
And then Matt was hitting Stefan with all the power in his body and Stefan was stumbling
over Elena, his head going down and down and meeting no resistance on the way. Meredith was
coming at him sideways and helping him do a complete forward flip in the air. As soon as the flip
took him out of the doorway and he was cartwheeling down the stairs, Elena got up and shut the door
and Meredith leaned against it, as Matt shouted, “How do you keep in a kitsune?”
“These might help,” gasped Mrs. Flowers, stuffing odiferous herbs into the crack under
the door.
“And—iron!” cried Elena, and she and Meredith and Matt all ran to the den where there
was an enormous, tripartite iron fire screen. Somehow they bundled it back to the kitchen and set it
upright against the root cellar door. Just then the first crash came from the inside against it, but the
iron was heavy and the second crash against the door was weaker.
“What are you doing? Have you all gone crazy?” Stefan shouted plaintively, but as the
entire group began to cover the door in Post-it Note amulets, he cursed instead and became pure
Shinichi. “You’ll be sorry, damn you! Misao’s not right. She cries and cries. You’ll make it up to
her with your blood, but not before I introduce you to some special friends of mine. The kind who
know how to cause real pain!”
Elena lifted her head, as if hearing something. Matt watched her frown. Then she called
to Shinichi, “Don’t even try to probe for Damon. He’s gone. And if you try to track him I’ll fry your
brains.”
Sullen silence greeted her from the root cellar.
“My goodness gracious, what next?” murmured Mrs. Flowers.
Elena simply nodded for the others to follow her, and they went all the way to the very
top of the house—Stefan’s room—and spoke in whispers.
“How did you know?”
“Did you use telepathy?”
“I didn’t know at first,” Matt admitted, “but Elena was acting as if the star ball was in
the root cellar. Stefan knows it’s not there. I guess,” he added with a guilty start, “that I invited him
in.”
“I knew as soon as he started groping my hair,” Elena said with a shudder. “Stefan and D
—I mean, Stefan knows I only like it touched lightly, and at the ends. Not mauled like that. Remember
all Shinichi’s little songs about golden hair? He’s a nutcase. Anyway, I could tell from the feel of his
mind.”
Matt felt ashamed. All his wondering about Elena maybe changing into a vampire…and
this was the answer, he thought.