07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

“Now sit down there,” he adjured Meredith, putting her on the opposite corner from
where he lay the stave.
“Have you given a thought—even the briefest—as to what will happen to Misao if you
pour out all the liquid in there?”
“Actually, not one. Not one microsecond’s worth,” Damon said cheerfully. “Why? Do
you think she would for me?”
Meredith sighed. “No. That’s the problem with both of you.”
“She’s certainly your problem at the moment, although I may stop by sometime after the
town’s destroyed to have a little tête-à-tête with her brother about the concept of keeping an oath.”
“After you’ve gotten strong enough to beat him.”
“Well, why don’t you do something? It’s your town they’ve devastated, after all,” Damon
said. “Children attacking themselves and each other, and now adults attacking children—”
“They’re either scared to death or possessed by those malach the foxes are still
spreading everywhere—”
“Yes, and so fear and paranoia keep spreading too. Fell’s Church may be little by the
standards of other genocides they’ve caused, but it’s an important place because it’s sitting on top—”
“Of all those ley lines full of magical power—yes, yes, I know. But don’t you care at
all? About us? Their future plans for us? Doesn’t any of it matter to you?” Meredith demanded.
Damon thought of the still, small figure in the first-floor bedroom and felt a sick qualm.
“I told you already,” he snapped. “I’m coming back for a talk with Shinichi.”
After which, carefully, he began to pour liquid from the uncorked star ball at one corner
of the rectangle. Now that he was actually at the Gate, he realized he had no idea what he should do.
The proper procedure might be to jump in and pour out the star ball’s entire liquid in the middle. But
four corners seemed to dictate four different places to pour, and he was sticking to that.
He expected Meredith to try to foul things up somehow. Make a run for the house. Make
some noise, at least. Attack him from behind now that he had dropped the stave. But apparently her
code of honor forbade this.
Strange girl, he thought. But I’ll leave her the stave, since it really belongs to her family,
and, anyway, it’s going to get me killed the instant I land in the Dark Dimension. A slave carrying a
weapon—especially a weapon like that—won’t have a chance.
Judiciously, he poured out almost all of the liquid left into the final corner and stepped
back to see what would happen.
SSSS-bah! White! Blazing white light. That was all his eyes or his mind could take in at
first.
And then, with a rush of triumph he thought: I’ve done it! The Gateway is open!
“The center of the upper Dark Dimension, please,” he said politely to the blazing hole.
“A secluded alley would probably be the best, if you don’t mind.” And then he jumped into the hole.
Except that he didn’t. Just as he was starting to bend his knees, something hit him from
the right. “Meredith! I thought—”
But it wasn’t Meredith. It was Bonnie.
“You tricked me! You can’t go in there!” She was sobbing and screaming.
“Yes, I can! Now let go of me—before it disappears!” He tried to pry her off, while his
mind whirled uselessly. He’d left this girl—what?—an hour or so ago, so deeply asleep that she had
looked dead. Just how much could that little body take?
“No! They’ll kill you! And Elena will kill me! But I’ll get killed first because I’ll still be