foot. The huge beast was making a sort of growly purring sound. “I mean, before that, it’s going to be great to throw a couple of passes to Stefan again — he’s the best tight end I’ve ever seen—”
“Or ever will see,” Meredith reminded him. “I don’t think many vampires go in for football, Matt, so don’t even think of suggesting that he and Elena follow you to Kent State. Besides, I’ll be right beside you, trying to get them to come to Harvard with me. And worse, we’re both checkmated by Bonnie, because that junior collegewhatever — is much closer to Fell’s Church and all the things around here they love.”
“All the things around here Elena loves,” Matt couldn’t help correcting. “All Stefan wants is to be with Elena.”
“Now, now,” Mrs. Flowers said. “Let’s just take things as they come, shall we, my dears? Mama says that we need to keep up our strength. She sounds worried to me — you know, she can’t foresee everything that happens.”
Matt nodded, but he had to swallow hard before saying to Meredith, “So, you’re eager to be off for the Ivied Walls, I’m sure?”
“If it wasn’t Harvard — if I could just put it off for a year and keep my scholarship…” Meredith’s voice trailed off, but the yearning in it was unmistakable.
Mrs. Flowers patted Meredith’s shoulder, and then said, “I wonder about dear Stefan and Elena. After all, with everyone thinking that she’s dead, Elena can’t live here and be seen.”
“I think they’ve given up on the idea of going somewhere far, far away,” Matt said. “I’ll bet that now they think of themselves as Fell’s Church’s guardians. They’ll get by somehow. Elena can shave her head.” Matt was trying for a light tone, but the words sank like lead balloons as they left his mouth.
“Mrs. Flowers was talking about college,” Meredith said in a tone just as heavy.
“Are they going to be super-heroes at night and just veg out the rest of the time? If they want to go somewhere even next year, they need to be thinking about it now.”
“Oh…well, I guess there’s Dalcrest.”
“Where?”
“You know, that little campus in Dyer. It’s small but the football team there is really — well, I guess Stefan wouldn’t care how good they are. But it’s only half an hour away.”
“Oh, that place. Well, the sports may be fantastic but it’s sure not an Ivy, much less Harvard.” Meredith — unsentimental, enigmatic Meredith — sounded as if she had a stuffed-up nose.
“Yeah,” Matt said — and just for a second took Meredith’s slim, cold hand and squeezed it. He was even more surprised when she linked her chilled fingers up with his, holding his hand.
“Mama says whatever is fated to happen will happen soon,” Mrs. Flowers said serenely. “The main thing, as I see it, is to save the dear, dear old town. As well as the people.”
“Of course it is,” Matt said. “We’re going to do our best. Thank God we have somebody in town who understands Japanese demons.”
“Orime Saitou,” Mrs. Flowers said with a little smile. “Bless her for her amulets.”
“Yeah, both of them,” Matt said, thinking of the grandmother and mother who shared the name. “I think we’re going to need a lot of those amulets they make,” he added grimly.
Mrs. Flowers opened her mouth, but Meredith spoke, still focused on thoughts of her own.
“You know, Stefan and Elena may not have given up on their far, far away thing after all,” she said sadly. “And since at this point none of us may even live to make it to our own colleges…” She shrugged.
Matt was still squeezing her hand when Bonnie dashed in the front door, keening.
She tried to speed through the foyer toward the stairs, avoiding the kitchen, but Matt released Meredith and they both dashed up to block her. Instantly, everyone was in combat mode. Meredith grasped Bonnie’s arm tightly. Mrs. Flowers came into the foyer, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Bonnie, what happened? Is it Shinichi and Misao? Are we being attacked?”
Meredith asked quietly but with the intensity to cut through hysteria.
Something shot like a bolt of ice through Matt’s body. No one really knew where Shinichi and Misao were right now. Perhaps in the thicket that was all that was left of the Old Woods — perhaps right here at the boardinghouse. “Elena!” he shouted.
“Oh, God, she and Damon are both out there! Are they hurt? Did Shinichi get them?”
Bonnie shut her eyes and shook her head.
“Bonnie, stay with me. Stay calm. Is it Shinichi? Is it the police?” Meredith asked.
And to Matt: “You’d better check through the curtains there.” But Bonnie was still shaking her head.
Matt saw no police lights through the curtains. Nor did he see any sign of Shinichi and Misao attacking.
“If we’re not being attacked,” Matt could hear Meredith saying to Bonnie, “then what is happening?”
Maddeningly, Bonnie just shook her head.
Matt and Meredith looked at each other over Bonnie’s strawberry curls. “The star ball,” Meredith said softly, just as Matt growled, “That bastard.”
“Elena won’t tell him anything but the story,” Meredith said. And Matt nodded, trying to keep from his mind a picture of Damon casually waving and Elena convulsing in agony.
“Maybe it’s the possessed kids — the ones who walk around hurting themselves or acting insane,” Meredith said, with a side glance at Bonnie, and squeezing Matt’s hand very hard.
Matt was bewildered and fumbled the cue. He said, “If that S.O.B. is trying to get the star ball, Bonnie wouldn’t have run away. She’s bravest when she’s scared. And unless he’s killed Elena she shouldn’t be like this—” Which left Meredith the grim job of saying, “Talk to us, Bonnie,” in her most comforting big-sister voice. “Something must have happened to get you in this state. Just breathe slowly and tell me what you saw.”
And then, in a torrent, words began to spill from Bonnie’s lips. “She — she was calling him darling,” Bonnie said, gripping Meredith’s other hand with both of hers.
“And there was blood smeared all around on her neck. And — oh, I dropped it! The bottle of Black Magic!”
“Oh, well,” Mrs. Flowers said gently. “No use crying over spilled wine. We’ll just have to—”
“No, you don’t understand,” Bonnie gasped. “I heard them talking as I came upI had to go slow because it’s so hard not to trip. They were talking about the star ball! At first I thought they were arguing, but — she had her arms around Damon’s neck. And all that stuff about him not being a vampire anymore? She had blood all over her throat and he had it on his mouth! As soon as I got there he picked her up and threw her so I couldn’t see but he wasn’t fast enough. She must have given the star ball to him! And she still was calling him ‘darling’!”
Matt’s eyes met Meredith’s and they both flushed and looked away quickly. If Damon was a vampire again — if he had somehow gotten the star ball from its hiding place — and if Elena had been “taking food” to him just to give him blood…
Meredith was still looking for a way out. “Bonnie — aren’t you making too much of this? Anyway, what happened to Mrs. Flowers’s tray of food?”
“It was — all over the place. They’d just tossed it away! But he was was holding her with one hand under her knees and one under her neck, and her head was way back so that her hair was falling all over his shoulder!”
There was a silence as everyone tried to imagine various positions that might correspond to Bonnie’s last words.
“You mean he was holding her up to steady her?” Meredith asked, her voice suddenly almost a whisper. Matt caught her meaning. Stefan was probably asleep upstairs, and Meredith wanted to keep it that way.
“No! They — they were looking at each other,” Bonnie cried. “Looking. Into each other’s eyes.”
Mrs. Flowers spoke mildly. “But dear Bonnie — maybe Elena fell down and Damon had to just scoop her up.”
Now Bonnie was speaking remorselessly and fluently. “Only if that’s what’s just happened to all those women on the covers of those romance books — what-d’youcall-’ems?”
“Bodice-rippers?” Meredith suggested unhappily when no one else spoke.
“That’s right! Bodice-rippers. That’s how he was holding her! I mean, we all knew that something was going on with the two of them in the Dark Dimension, but I thought all that would stop when we found Stefan. But it hasn’t!”
