07 The Return_ Midnight - L. J. Smith

dressed in a flannel nightgown with a fuzzy pink robe over it, and slippers with bunny heads on them.
As the first hammering knock on the door sounded, she had her hand on the door handle, and the
police officer, who was beginning to shout, “POLICE! OPEN THE—” found himself bawling this
directly over the head of a little old lady who could not have looked more frail or harmless. He ended
almost in a whisper, “—door?”
“It is open,” Mrs. Flowers said sweetly. She opened it to its widest, so that Elena could
see two officers, and the officers could see Elena, Stefan, and Meredith, all of whom had just arrived
from the kitchen area.
“We want to speak to Matt Honeycutt,” the female officer said. Elena noted that the squad
car was from the Ridgemont Sheriff’s Department. “His mother informed us that he was here—after
serious questioning.”
They were coming inside, shouldering their way past Mrs. Flowers. Elena glanced at
Stefan, who was pale, with tiny beads of sweat visible on his forehead. He was looking intently at the
female officer, but she just kept talking.
“His mother says he’s been virtually living at this boardinghouse recently,” she said,
while the male officer held up some kind of paperwork.
“We have a warrant to search the premises,” he said flatly.
Mrs. Flowers seemed uncertain. She glanced back toward Stefan, but then let her gaze
move on to the other teenagers. “Perhaps it would be best if I made everyone a nice cup of tea?”
Stefan was still looking at the woman, his face looking paler and more drawn than ever.
Elena felt a sudden panic clutch at her stomach. Oh, God, even with the gift of her blood tonight,
Stefan was weak—far too weak to even use Influence.
“May I ask a question?” Meredith said in her low, calm voice. “Not about the warrant,”
she added, waving the paper away. “How is it out there in Fell’s Church? Do you know what’s going
on?”
She was buying time, Elena thought, and yet everyone stopped to hear the answer.
“Mayhem,” the female sheriff replied after a moment’s pause. “It’s like a war zone out
there. Worse than that because it’s the kids who are—” She broke off and shook her head. “That’s not
our business. Our business is finding a fugitive from justice. But first, as we were driving toward
your hotel we saw a very bright column of light. It wasn’t from a helicopter. I don’t suppose you
know anything about what it was?”
Just a door through space and time, Elena was thinking, as Meredith answered, still
calmly, “Maybe a power transmitter blowing up? Or a freak shaft of lightning? Or are you talking
about…a UFO?” She lowered her already soft voice.
“We don’t have time for this,” the male sheriff said, looking disgusted. “We’re here to
find this Honeycutt man.”
“You’re welcome to look,” Mrs. Flowers said. They were already doing so.
Elena felt shocked and nauseated on two fronts. “This Honeycutt man.” Man, not boy.
Matt was over eighteen. Was he still a juvenile? If not, what would they do to him when they
eventually caught up to him?
And then there was Stefan. Stefan had been so certain, so…convincing…in his
announcements about being well again. All that talk about going back to hunting animals—but the truth
was that he needed much more blood to recover.
Now her mind spun into planning mode, faster and faster. Stefan obviously wasn’t going
to be able to Influence both of those officers without a very large donation of human blood.