Stefan’s apartment, she could stand here and speak about it, but she couldn’t do it.
“Elena! You have to. I don’t want you to see what they do—”
“I’ll kill them!”
“You’re no killer. You’re not a fighter, Elena — and you shouldn’t see this. Please? Remember once you asked me if I’d like to see how many times you could make me say ‘please?’ Well, each counts for a thousand now. Please? For me? Will you go?”
“One more kiss…” Her heart was beating like a frantic bird inside her.
“Please!”
Blind with tears, Elena turned around and grasped hold of the cell door.
“Anywhere outside the ceremony where no one will see me!” she gasped and wrenched the door to the corridor open and stepped through.
At least she’d seen Stefan, but for how long that would last to keep her heart from shattering again— oh, my God, I’m falling — she didn’t know.
Elena realized that she was outside the boardinghouse somewhere — at least some eighty feet high — and plummeting rapidly. Her first, panicked conclusion was that she was going to die, and then instinct kicked in and she reached out with arms and hands and kicked in with legs and feet and managed to arrest her fall after twenty agonizing feet.
I’ve lost my flying wings forever, haven’t I? she thought, concentrating on a single spot between her shoulder blades. She knew just where they should be — and nothing happened.
Then, carefully, she inched her way closer to the trunk, pausing only to move to a higher twig a caterpillar that was sharing the branch with her. And she managed to find a sort of place where she could sit by sidling and then pushing backward. It was far too high a branch for her personal taste.
As it was, she found that she could look down and see the widow’s walk quite clearly, and that the longer she looked at any particular thing the clearer her vision got. Vampire vision plus, she thought. It showed her that she was Changing. Or else — yes, somehow here the sky was getting lighter.
What it showed her was a dark and empty boardinghouse, which was disturbing because of what Caroline’s father had said about “the meeting” and what she had learned telepathically from Damon about Shinichi’s plans for this Moonspire night. Could this be not the real boardinghouse at all, but another trap?
“We made it!” Bonnie cried as they approached the house. She knew her voice was shrill, was over-shrill, but somehow the sight of that brightly lit boardinghouse, like a Christmas tree with a star on top, comforted her, even if she knew that it was all wrong. She felt she could cry in relief.
“Yes, we did,” Dr. Alpert’s deep voice said. “All of us. Isobel’s the one who needs the most treatment, the fastest. Theophilia, get your nostrums ready, and somebody else take Isobel and run her a bath.”
“I’ll do it,” Bonnie quavered, after a brief hesitation. “She’s going to stay tranquilized like she is now, right? Right?”
“I’ll go with Isobel,” Matt said. “Bonnie, you go with Mrs. Flowers and help her. And before we go inside, I want to make one thing clear: nobody goes anywhere alone. We all travel in twos or threes.” There was the ring of authority in his voice.
“Makes sense,” Meredith said crisply and took up a place by the doctor. “You’d better be careful, Matt; Isobel is the most dangerous.”
That was when the high, thin voices began outside the house. It sounded like two or three little girls singing.
“Isa-chan, Isa-chan, Drank her tea and ate her gran.”
“Tami? Tami Bryce?” Meredith demanded, opening the door as the tune began again. She darted forward, then she grabbed the doctor by the hand, and dragged her along beside her as she darted forward again.
And, yes, Bonnie saw, there were three little figures, one in pajamas and two in nightgowns, and they were Tami Bryce and Kristin Dunstan and Ava Zarinski. Ava was only about eleven, Bonnie thought, and she didn’t live near either Tami or Kristin. The three of them all giggled shrilly. Then they started singing again and Matt went after Kristin.
“Help me!” Bonnie cried. She was suddenly hanging on to a bucking, kicking bronco that lashed out in every direction. Isobel seemed to have gone crazy, and she went crazier every time that tune was repeated.
“I’ve got her,” Matt said, closing in on her with a bear hug, but even the two of them couldn’t hold Isobel still.
“I’m getting her another sedative,” Dr. Alpert said, and Bonnie saw the glances between Matt and Meredith — glances of suspicion.
“No — no, let Mrs. Flowers make her something,” Bonnie said desperately, but the hypodermic needle was already almost at Isobel’s arm.
“You’re not giving her anything,” Meredith said flatly, dropping the charade, and with one chorus-girl kick, she sent the hypodermic flying.
“Meredith! What’s wrong with you?” the doctor cried, wringing her wrist.
“It’s what’s wrong with you that’s the matter. Who are you? Where are we? This can’t be the real boardinghouse.”
“Obaasan! Mrs. Flowers! Can’t you help us?” Bonnie gasped, still trying to hold on to Isobel.
“I’ll try,” Mrs. Flowers said determinedly, heading toward her.
“No, I meant with Dr. Alpert — and maybe Jim. Don’t you — know any spells — to make people take on their true forms?”
“Oh!” Obaasan said. “I can help with that. Just let me down, Jim dear. We’ll have everyone in their true forms in no time.”
Jayneela was a sophomore with large, dreamy, dark eyes that were generally lost in a book. But now, as it neared midnight and Gramma still hadn’t called, she shut her book and looked at Ty. Tyrone seemed big and fierce and mean on the playing field, but off it he was the nicest, kindest, gentlest big brother a girl could want.
“You think Gramma’s okay?”
“Hm?” Tyrone had his nose in a book, too, but it was one of those help-you-get-into-the-college-of-your- dreams books. As a senior-to-be, he was having to make some serious decisions. “Of course she is.”
“Well, I’m going to check on the little girl, at least.”
“You know what, Jay?” He poked her teasingly with one toe. “You worry too much.”
In moments he was lost again in Chapter Six, “How to Make the Most of Your Community Service.” But then the screams started coming from above him. Long, loud, high screams — his sister’s voice. He dropped the book and ran.
“Obaasan?” Bonnie said.
“Just a moment, dear,” Grandma Saitou said. Jim had put her down and now she was facing him squarely: she looking up, and he looking down. And there was something…very wrong about it.
Bonnie felt a wave of pure terror. Could Jim have done something evil to Obaasan as he carried her? Of course he could. Why hadn’t she thought of that? And there was the doctor with her syringe, ready to tranquilize anyone who got too “hysterical.” Bonnie looked at Meredith, but Meredith was trying to deal with two squirming little girls, and could only glance helplessly back.
All right, then, Bonnie thought. I’ll kick him where it hurts most and get the old lady away from him. She turned back to Obaasan and felt herself freeze.
“Just one thing I have to do…,” Obaasan had said. And she was doing it. Jim was bent at the waist, folded in half toward Obaasan, who was on her tiptoes. They were locked in a deep, intimate kiss.
Oh, God!
They had met four people in a wood — and assumed that two were sane and two insane. How could they tell which were the insane ones? Well, if two of them see things that aren’t there…
But the house was there; Bonnie could see it, too. Was she insane?
“Meredith, come on!” she screamed. Her nerve breaking completely, she began to run away from the house toward the forest.
Something from the skies plucked her up as easily as an owl picks up a mouse and held her in an unrelenting iron grip.
“Going somewhere?” Damon’s voice asked from above her as he glided in the last few yards to a stop, with
