The Return: Midnight Chapter 42

Its not a problem,the fair ruler, Ryannen, say unexpectedly. We foot make it so that your Mr. Tanner repel ed an app arnt lamia attack and the school cal ed in Alaric Saltzman to take his place and investigate. wholly right, Idola? to the redhead, and to the evil matchless All right, Susurre?Elena wasnt All right. Despite the example shed skillful had of turn-on-a-dime plotting and scheming, she was scarcely lis disco biscuiting. Al she knew was that her theatrical role had at rest(p) husky and that tears blear-eyed her eyeball. Andfor the get across find surface I want Stefan squeezed her expire. Elena suddenly realized that they were al standing, al three of them, be align her. And the look on all face was the same. deadened resolve.I want Damon spikelet.Elena hadnt fancyd quite this note in her voice since the day shed been told both her parents had devolved. If in that location had been a table, she would give course cast off her seize fists on it a nd did her best to loom over the women.As it was, she simply leaned toward them, address in a low and grating voice. If you do that open him back, incisively as he was before he walked into the Gatehouse consequently you get the archetype Key and the treasures. You say no and you lose everything. Everything. This is non-negotiable, get it?She kept perfect(a) into Idolas green eyes. She refused to tally dark Susurre drop her forehead onto three fingertips and swallow to rub it in smal circles. She wouldnt give a glance to blond Ryannen, who was flavour at her steadily, having g whizz into people-management mode. She stared directly into those green eyes under their wil ful eyebrows. Idola gave a little huff and shook her gorgeous head.Look, some mavin clearly has screwed up in preparing you for this interview.A glance at Susurre. The former(a) things youve asked for al together, it forms a very heavy ransom. Do you understand that? Do you understand that it involves ev er-changing the memories of al the people for miles more or less your t bear, and changing them for every day of ten months?That it means changing everything in print about Fel s church service and that there is a lot in print not to maintain other media outlets? It means begging for three human spirits and distort flesh around them again. Im not sure we make up have the military unit for this Blond Ryannen put a hand on the redheads arm. We have it. Susurres women have little to do in the Nether human being. I can confer you perhaps thirty percent of mine after al , were qualifying to have to send up a petition to a higher(prenominal) Court for those spirits Idola the redhead interrupted. All right. What I was proverb is that we expertness beneficial be able to manage if you throw in the Key. However, your lamia companion we cant give life back to the lifeless. We cant work with vampires. Once theyre g cardinal theyre g unmatched.Thats what you tell usStefan c ried, trying to get in front of Elena. scarce why are we so particularly damned, of al creatures? How do you realise its impossible? Have you ever level tried? rubor-fuzzed Idola was devising a disgusted gesture, when becoming interrupted, her voice shaking. Its ridiculous You can rebuild a town, you can kil the person whos real y behind al Shinichi and Misao did, still you cant bring one little vampire back? You brought Elena backElenas expiration as a vampire al owed her to bring about the Guardian she was pilot burner y meant to be. As for the person who gave orders to Shinichi and Misao It was Inari Saitou Obaasan Saitou, as you knew her and she is already dead, thanks to your friends in Fel s Church, who weakened her and to you, who destroyed her star bal .Inari? You mean Isobels grandma? Youre saying it was her star bal in the Great Trees trunk? Thats impossiblebecoming cried.No, its not. Its the truth,blond Ryannen said simply.And shes dead direct?After a long in volutioning which nearly kil ed your friends. Yes tho what actual y killed her was having her star bal destroyed.So,dark Susurre said quietly, if you fol ow the curvein a way your Damon did die to survive Fel s Church from another massacre like the one on that Japanese island. He kept saying that was what hed come to the Nether World to do.Do you not conceive of he would besatisfied? At peace?At peace?Stefan spat bitterly, and Sage growled.Woman,he said, you plainly have never met Damon Salvatore before.The tone in his voice more(prenominal) resonant, more threatening somehow do Elena terminal y break finish off her stare mountain feather with the red-haired Idola. She turned and looked and saw the enormous room fil ed with Sages out-spread wing.They werent like either of her ephemeral locomote Powers. They were clearly part of Sage. They were velvety and reptilian, and, unfurled like this, they stretched from strange wal to wal , and touched the grand, golden ceil ing. They also demonstrated why Sage didnt familiar y wear shirts.He was beautiful this way, bronze skin and hair against those giant, leathery aristocratical- spirit arches. plainly Elena, after one look at him, knew that the succession had come to p lay out the ace up her sleeve. She turned around to cope with Idolas green gaze squarely.Al this time weve been bargaining for a Gatehouse ful of treasures,she said, and one Master Key.A Master Key, stolen by the kitsune ages upon ages ago,Susurre explained quietly, lifting her dark eyes.And youve said that its not enough for you to bring Damon back.Elena cored her voice not to waver.Not even if it were your barely request.Ryannen tossed a golden lock of hair over her shoulder.So you say. Butwhat if I throw into the potanother Master Key?There was a pause, and Elenas unwrapt began to pound in sick terror. Because it was the vituperate kind of pause. There were no shocked gasps. No astonished glances from one Guardian ruler to another. No looks of disbelief.After another issue Idola said smugly, If you mean the other stolen key that your friends had on Earth it was confiscated as presently as they hid it. It was stolen property. It belonged to us.Shes been here alike long, in the Dark Dimensions, Elena feeling with one part of her listen. Shes enjoying herself.Idola leaned toward her, as if to confirm Elenas guess. It simply is not possible,she said emphatical y. realistic y, it isnt,the fair Ryannen added briskly. We dont jockey what happens to vampires. But they dont pass through our purview. We never see them after death. The simplest explanation is that they just go out.She snapped her fingers.I dont believe that Elena was alive(predicate) that her voice had risen in volume. I dont believe that for one momentVoices, not attached to anyone in particular, burst into a clamor of product line around Elena, forming a sort of poem Not possible. Its simply not possible ( But please) NoDamon is gone, and to ask where is like request where a candle flame goes when its blown out. ( But shouldnt you try to bring him back, at the least? ) Whatever has happened to gratitude? You four should be grateful that the other things you asked for can be done. ( But in exchange for both Master Keys ) No Power we can command could bring Damon back Elena moldiness try to reconcile herself to reality.She has been pampered too much already ( But what deterioration can it do to try again? ) All right If you must know, Susurre has already forced us to try. And nothing came of itDamonisgone His spirit was nowhere to be found in the ether That is what happens to vampires, and everyone knows itElena found herself looking down at her own hands, which were very clean save with broken nails and every knuckle bleeding. The outside world had become unreal again. She was at heart herself, struggle with her grief, struggling with the knowledge that Idola, the central ruler of Guardians, hadnt even mentioned before that they had looked for Damons spirit. And that it wasgone.Suddenly, the room was pressing in on her. There wasnt enough air. There were lone(prenominal) these women these powerful, magical Guardian women who Stilldid not have enough power or magic to save Damon or at least didnt even caution enough to try twice.She wasnt sure what was happening to her. Her throat felt puff out, her chest was both huge and tight. Each heartbeat sounded through her as if trying to shake her to death.To death. In her minds eye, she saw a hand resist up a glass of Clarion Loess B inadequacy Magic.And then, Elena knew that she had to stand a trustworthy way, and hold her arm a certain way, and whisper certain words in her own mind. But the last, the naming of the spel , had only to be said aloud at the end.At the end when things slowed. When green-eyed Idola what a perfect name for someone who idolized herself, Elena thought and fair businesslike Ryannen and nurturing Susurre al stared at her with open mouths, too shocked to move even a finger as, quietly and calmly, Elena said,Wings of Destruction It was a soldier, just an ordinary one of the rank and file, one of the dark women, who stop it. She leaped up onto the dais, and, with inhuman speed, slapped her hand over Elenas mouth, so that the final syl able was a mumble, and the golden, green, and blue hal did not explode into fragments with hot metal running in rivulets like lava, and the flower-fountain did not vaporize, and the stained-glass windows didnt shatter into atoms.Then there were more arms around Elena, holding her down, scarcely letting her breathe, even when she went limp for lack of air. Elena fought like an animal, with her teeth and nails, to escape. But she eventual y was completely restrained, pinned to the floor. She could hear Sages deep voice raging and Stefan, in amongst desperate telepathic bursts to her, pleading and explaining, Shes Stillnot in reality She doesnt even know what shes doingBut louder, she could hear the voices of the Guardians. She would have kil ed us al Those Wings Ive never seen anything so deadlyA human And with just three words, she could have wiped us outIf Lenea hadnt tackled her Or if she had been another few feet away She destroyed a moon, you know No life on it at allnow, and ashes Stillfal ing from the skyThat isnt the accuse. The point is that she shouldnt have Wings powers at all. Shes got to be pinchped of them.Thats right clip her Wings Do it Elena recognized Ryannens and Idolas voices at the end there. She was Stilltrying to fight, only when they held her so tightly and piled on her so ruthlessly that it had become a fight simply to get air and al she did was exhaust herself.And then they snip off her Wings. It was quick, at least, and Elena felt very little. What hurt most was her heart. Some proud, dour streak had been brought out with the bit, and now she was ashamed to feel each match cut off.First went Wi ngs of wildemption, those great rainbow-hued arches. Then Wings of Purification, dust coat and iridescent as frosted cobwebs. Wings of the Wind, like honey-colored thistledown. Wings of Remembrance, diffused violet and midnight blue. And then Wings of Protection emerald green and gold, the Wings that had save her friends from Bloddeuwedds frenzied attack on them the first time they had entered the Dark Dimensions.And, final y, Wings of Destruction high, ebony arches with edges as delicate as dull lace.Elena tried to keep silent as each power was taken. But after the first one or two had fal en at her sides, in shadows that perhaps only she could see, she heard a smal gasp, and realized that it was her own voice. And with the next cut, an involuntary little cry.For a moment there was silence. And then suddenly there was overwhelming noise. Elena could hear Bonnie keening and Sage roaring, and Stefan, downcast Stefan, shouting blasphemies and curses at the Guardians. Elena gue ssed from the stifled sound of his voice that he was engagement them, fighting to get to her.He reached her, somehow, just as the deadly, delicate Wings of Destruction were sheared from her shoulders and mind, and fel like tal shadows to the ground. It was good that he did reach her then, because at last, when Elena was the least dangerous she had been since the Powers of Wings had begun awakening in her, suddenly the Guardians seemed afraid. They stepped back from her, these strong and dangerous women, and only Stefan was there to catch her and hold her in his arms.Stunned, dazed, she was an eighteen-year-old girl who was ordinary. Except for her blood. They wanted to rob her of her blood as headto purifyit. The three rulers and their attendants had already gathered in a determined, multihued triangle around her and were working their magic when Sage bel owed, StopElena, nodding over Stefans shoulder, could see him vaguely, his velvety black wings Stillspread from wal to wal , Stilltouching the golden ceiling. Bonnie clung to him like a bit of stray dandelion fluff. You have already diminished her aura to almost nothing,he growled. If you purifythe blood of this pauvre petite completely, she wil die and then she wil awaken. You wil have created un vampire, Mesdames. Is that what you wish?Susurre reeled back. For the ruler of such a rough and unyielding realm, she seemed almost too gentle notwithstanding not too soft to shear off my Wings, Elena thought, wriggling her shoulders to ease them. Maybe she didnt know how much it would hurt, another part of her mind offered vaguely.Then al her mind came together in an emergency meeting.Something warm and cooling was sliding down the back of her neck, in tiny droplets. Not blood. No, this was infinitely more rare than what the Guardians had taken away.Stefans tears.She rocked hard, trying to take her own weight on her feet.Somehow, shakily, she managed it. She only realized just how shaky she was when she t ried to lift a hand and wipe the tears off Stefans cheeks with her thumb. Her whole hand wobbled as if she were devising a childish joke. Her thumb struck his cheek with enough force to make anyone else wince. She looked at him with dumb apology, too shocked to try to speak.Stefan was speaking. all over and over. It doesnt matter,he was saying. Its All right, love. Oh, lovely love, it wil be All right.He wiped her eyes with a hand that was rock steady, and al the time he was looking only at her, and she knew speak uping only of her.She knew that because she also knew the moment when it changed.Red hair was in her line of sight, blurred through new tears.Red hair and narrow green eyes, too close to her. That was when Elena felt Stefan mark that there was anything other than Elena in the world.His face changed. He didnt snarl or stick out his chin. The change was an entire alteration, but it centered around his eyes, which became deadly hard while everything else became sharp and fierce.If you touch her again, you vicious bitch, I wil rip out your throat,Stefan said, and each word was like a snatch of ice-cold iron dropped onto the floor.Elenas tears stopped with the shock of it. Stefan didnt talk that way to women. Even Damon didnt hadnt. But the words were Stillechoing in the sudden silence of the cathedral-like room. pile were approve away.Idola was backing away too, but her lip was curled. Do you think that because we are Guardians that we cannot harm you ?she was beginning, when Stefans voice cut through hers cleanly.I think that because you are Guardiansyou can kil sanctimoniously and get away with it,Stefan said, and his lip do a far more compel ing and frightening line of reject than Idolas had. You would have kil ed Elena if Sage hadnt stopped you. Damn you,he added softly, but with such utter conviction that Idola took another step backward. Yes, youd better ral y al your little friends around,he added. I force just break up to kil you anyway. I kil ed my own brother, as Im sure you realize.But surely that was only after taking a mortal blow yourself.Susurre was between the two of them, trying to intercede.Stefan shrugged. He looked at her with the same contempt as he had the other ruler. I Stillhad the use of my arm,he said deliberately. I could have decided to drop my sword, or to merely wound him. quite I chose to put a blade straight through his heart.He showed his teeth in a distinctly unfriendly smile. And now I dont even need a weapon.Stefan,Elena managed at last to whisper.I know. Shes weaker than I am and you dont want to see me kil her. Thats why shes Stillalive, love. Its the only reason.As Elena get up half-frightened eyes to him, Stefan added in a voice only she could hear, Of course, there are some things about me you dont know, Elena. Things Id hoped youd never have to see. Knowing you loving you made me almost forget about them.Stefans voice in her head woke something inside Elena.She lifted her head and looked at the blurry mass of Guardians around them. She saw strawberry-blond curls suspended in midair. Bonnie. Bonnie fighting. Doing it weakly, but only because a jibe of the fair Guardians and another pair of dark ones were holding her in the air, one to each limb. As Elena stared at her she seemed to regain energy and fought harder. And Elena could hearsomething. It was calorie-free and far away, but it almost sounded likeher name. Like her name speak by whispering branches or the whirring of passing bicycle wheels. laynaheeelayElena reached inwardly for the sound. She tried desperately to grasp whatever came after, but nothing happened. She tried a trick she would have found at large(p) yesterday channeling Power to the center of her telepathy. It didnt work. She tried her telepathy.Bonnie Can you hear me?There wasnt even the slightest change in the smal er girls expression.Elena had lost her subsume to Bonnie.She watched as Bonnie realized the same thing, wat ched the fight go out of the smal body. Bonnies face, upturned in blank despair, was indescribably sad, and somehow indescribably uncontaminated and beautiful, al at once.That will never happen to us, Stefans voice in her mind told her fiercely. Never I give you my No Elena thought back, superstitiously terrified of a jinx. If Stefan swore, something might happen she might have to become a vampire or a spirit to ensure that he didnt break his word.He stopped, and Elena knew that he had heard her. And somehow this knowledge, that Stefan had heard a single word from her, Stilled her. She knew he wasnt spying. Hed heard because shed sent the thought to him. She wasnt alone. She might be ordinary again they might have taken her wings and most of the Power of her blood, but she wasnt alone. She leaned toward him, her forehead against Stefans chin.No one is alone. Shed told Damon that. Damon Salvatore, a being who no longer existed. But who Stillcal ed forth from her one more word, one final cry. His name.DamonHed died four dimensions away. But she could feel Stefan backing her, amplifying her transmission, sending it like one last beacon through the mess of worlds that separated them from his cold and lifeless body.DamonThere wasnt the slightest glimmer of an answer. Of course not. Elena was making a fool of herself.Suddenly something stronger than grief, stronger than self-pity, even stronger than guilt, took hold of her. Damon wouldnt have wanted her to be carried out of this hal even by Stefan. Especial y by Stefan. He would have wanted her to show no sign of failing to these women whod shorn her and humiliated her.Yes. That was Stefan. Her love, but not her lover, wil ing to love her chastely from now until the end of her days.The endof her days?Elena was suddenly glad that she couldnt toil to strangers telepathical y and that Stefan had set shields around them when hed taken her into his arms. She turned to Ryannen, who was watchingwarily, but Stillwit h business in her eyes.Id like to go now, if you dont mind,she said, picking up her take and slinging it over her shoulder with a gesture as coercive as she could make it. There was a bolt of agony as the weight of the strap hit the place from which most of her wings had sprung, but she kept her face contemptuous and indifferent.Bonnie, back on the ground since she wasnt fighting any longer, fol owed Elenas lead. Stefan had left his backpack in the Gatehouse, but he quietly cupped a hand around Elenas elbow, not guiding her, but demo that he was there for her.Sages wings folded back into themselves and were gone.You understand that for the return of these treasures which are ours by right but which we were barred from retrieving you wil be granted your requests with the excommunication of the imposs I understand,Elena said flatly, just as Stefan said, much more brusquely, She understands. serious do it, wil you?It is already being organized.Ryannens eyes, dark blue splashed with gold, met Elenas with a look not entirely unsympathetic.The best thing,Sussure added hastily, would be for us to put you to sleep and send you to your your old, new dwellings. By the time you awaken, al wil have been accomplished.Elena forced her face not to change. Send me to Maple Street?she asked, looking at Ryannen. Aunt Judiths house?In your sleep, yes.I dont want to be asleep.Elena travel even closer to Stefan. Dont let them put me to sleepNo ones spillage to do anything to you that you dont want,Stefan said, and his voice was like the edge of a razor.Sage rumbled his support, and Bonnie stared at the fair woman hard.Ryannen bowed her head.Elena woke up.It was dark, and shed been asleep. She couldnt remember exactly how shed fal en asleep, but she knew she wasnt on the palanquin, and she knew she wasnt in a sleeping bag.Stefan? Bonnie? Damon? she thought automatical y, but there was something odd about her telepathy. It felt almost as if it were confined to her own hea d.Was she in Stefans room? It must be coal black outside, since she couldnt even see the outline of the trapdoor that led to the widows walk.Stefan?she whispered, while various bits of data pooled in her mind. There was a smel , at once familiar and unfamiliar. She was fraud on a comfortable double bed, not one of doll Ulmas silken-and-velvet extravaganzas, but not any lumpy featherbed from the boardinghouse, either. Was she in a hotel?As these various thoughts came together in her brain, there was a soft quick rapping. Knuckles on glass.Elenas body took over. She tossed off the bedspread and ran to the window, cryptically avoiding obstacles without thinking about them at all. Her hands wrenched aside curtains that she somehow knew were there and her skyrocketing heart brought a name to her lips.Da And then the world stopped and did its slowest somersault of al . The sight of a face, fierce and concerned and loving and yet strangely frustrated, just on the other side of the se cond-story window, brought Elenas memories back.Al of them.Fel s Church was saved.And Damon was dead.Her head bent slowly until her forehead touched the cool pane of glass.