The Return: Shadow Souls

“But I heard that wherever three ley lines come together — I think Damon said — they can form a Gate. A Gate to where they were going.”

“Dear me,” said Mrs. Flowers. “You mean you think one of those Gateway things is out there? Maybe it’s them, coming back.”

“It couldn’t be.” The time Matt had spent with this particular old woman had made him not only respect her, but love her. “But I don’t think we should go outside, anyway.”

“Dear Matt. You are such a comfort to me,” Mrs. Flowers murmured.

Matt didn’t really see how. It was all her stored food and water they were using. Even the fold-up cot was hers.

If he had been on his own he might have investigated this…extraordinary thing. Three spotlights shining out of the ground at an angle so that they met just about at the height of a human being. Bright lights. And getting brighter every minute.

Matt sucked in his breath. Three ley lines, huh? God, it was probably an invasion of monsters.

He didn’t even dare to hope.

Elena didn’t know if she had needed to say USA or Earth, or even if the door could take her to Fell’s Church, or if Damon would have to give her the name of some gate that was close to it. But…surely…with all those ley lines…

The door opened, revealing a small room like an elevator.

Sage said quietly, “Can you four carry him if you have to fight, too?” And — after a second to unravel what this meant — three shrieks of protest, in three different feminine tones, came.

“No! Oh, please, no! Oh don’t leave us!!”—Bonnie, begging.

“You’re not coming home with us?”—Meredith,

straight-from-the-shoulder.

“I order you to get in — and make it quick!”—Elena.

“Such a dominant woman,” murmured Sage. “Ah, well, it seems the Great Pendulum has swung again. I am only a man. I obey.”

“What? Does that mean you’re coming?” Bonnie cried.

“It means I am coming, yes.” Gently, Sage took Stefan’s wasted body in his arms and stepped into the little cubicle inside the door. Unlike the first keys Elena had used today, this one seemed to work more like a voice- activated elevator…she hoped. After all, Shinichi and Misao had each only needed one key for themselves. Here, a number of people might want to go to the same place at once.

She hoped.

Sage back-kicked Stefan’s old bedding away. Something rattled on the ground. “Oh—” Stefan reached helplessly for it. “It’s my Elena diamond. I found it on the floor after…”

“Plenty more where that came from,” Meredith said.

“It’s important to him,” Damon, who was already inside, said. Instead of crowding farther into the elevator, the little room that might disappear at any second, that might be gone for Fell’s Church before he could turn back, he walked out into the lobby, looked closely at the floor, and knelt. Then, quickly, he reached down and then got up and hurried into the little room again.

“Do you want to hold it or shall I?”

“You hold it…for me. Take care of it.”

Anyone who knew of Damon’s track record, especially with regards to Elena or even an old diamond that had belonged to Elena, would have said Stefan had to be a madman. But Stefan wasn’t mad.

He clasped his hand over his brother’s that held the diamond.

“And I’ll hold on to you,” he said with a faint, wry smile.

“I don’t know if anyone is interested,” Meredith said, “but there is a single button on the inside of this contraption.”

“Push it!” cried Sage and Bonnie, but Elena cried more loudly, “No—wait!”

She’d spotted something. Across the lobby, the Guardians had been unable to stop a single, apparently unarmed citizen from entering the room and crossing the floor at a high-paced graceful glide. He must have been over six feet tall, wearing an entirely white tunic and breeches, which matched his long white hair, alert foxlike ears, and the long flowing silky tail that waved behind him.

“Shut the door!” bellowed Sage.

“Oh, my!” breathed Bonnie.

“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” snarled Damon.

“Don’t worry. It’s only a fellow prisoner. A silent fellow. Hey, you got out, too!” Stefan was smiling and that was enough for Elena. And the intruder was holding out something to him that — well, it couldn’t be what it looked like — but it was getting quite close now and it looked like a bouquet of flowers.

“That is a kitsune, is it not?” Meredith asked, as if the world had gone mad around her.

“A prisoner—” said Stefan.

“A THIEF!” shouted Sage.

“Hush!” said Elena. “He can probably hear even if he can’t speak.”

By then the kitsune was upon them. He met Stefan’s eye, glanced at the others and held out the bouquet, which was heavily sealed in plastic wrap and some kind of long stickers with magical-looking inscriptions on them.

“This is for Stefan,” he said.

Everyone, including Stefan, gasped.

“Now I must deal with some tiresome Guardians.” He sighed. “And you must press the button to make the room go, Beauty,” he said to Elena.

Elena, who had momentarily been fascinated by the whisking of a fluffy tail around silken breeches suddenly blushed scarlet. She was remembering certain things. Certain things that had seemed very different…in a lonely dungeon…in the dark of artificially formed night….

Oh, well. Best to put a brave face on it.

“Thank you,” she said, and pushed the button. The doors began to close. “Thank you again!” she added, bowing slightly to the kitsune. “I’m Elena.”

“Yoroshiku. I am—”

The door shut between them.

“Is it that you have gone crazy?” Sage cried. “Taking a bouquet from a fox!”

“You’re the one who seems to know him, Monsieur Sage,” Meredith said. “What’s his name?”

“I do not know his name! I do know he stole three-fifths of the Seine Cloister Treasure from me! I know that he is expert, but expert at cheating at the cards! Ahh!”

The last was not a cry of rage but an exclamation of alarm, for the little room was moving sideways, plunging downward, almost stopping, before it resumed its former steady motion.

“Will it really take us to Fell’s Church?” Bonnie asked timidly, and Damon put an arm around her.

“It’ll take us somewhere,” he promised. “And then we’ll see. We’re a pretty able set of survivalists.”

“Which reminds me,” Meredith said. “I think Stefan looks better.” Elena, who had been helping to buffer him from the dimensional elevator’s motion, glanced up at her quickly.

“Do you really? Or is it just the light? I think he should be feeding,” she said anxiously.

Stefan flushed, and Elena pressed fingers to her lips to stop them trembling. Don’t, darling, she said voicelessly. Every one of these people have been willing to give their life for you — or for me — for us. I’m healthy. I’m still bleeding. Please don’t waste it.

Stefan murmured, “I’ll stop the bleeding.” But when she bent to him, as she had known he would, he drank.

42

By now Matt and Mrs. Flowers couldn’t ignore the blinding lights anymore. They had to go outside.