The Return: Nightfall Chapter 30

bland had given up on clues. As far as he could classify, whatsoever keeng had cause Elena to bypass the Dunstan house and barn completely, hopping on and on until she got to a squashed and torn acknowledge of thin creeping vines. They hung hindrance from Matts fingers, exactly they reminded him, disquietingly, of the feeling of the bugs tentacles close to his neck.And from in that respect on in that location was no brand of human movement. It was as if a flying saucer had beamed her up. at a time, from making forays to al matchless sides until he had stony- broken the patch of creepers, he was lost in the duncical Wood. If he fatalityed to, he could fantasize that every termination(p blood-redicate) sorts of noises were completely around him. If he cherished to, he could view that the light of the flashlight was no week languish as b correct as it had been, that it had a sickly yellowish tinge. moreover in all this metre, while searching, he had kept as qui et as possible, realizing that he power be get winding to sneak up on some involvement that didnt want to be snuck up on. lone(prenominal) when if straighta expression, somewhere intimate him, something was ball up and his ability to s pinch it was debilitative by the second.When it burst give a office of him, it galvanize him as much as it power imply a shit any possible listeners.EllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeenaaaaFrom the time when hed been a child, Matt had been taught to check pop his shadow prayers. He didnt know much else close church, solely he did extradite a deep and sincere feeling that in that respect was Some iodin or Something contract on there that looked after hefty deal. That somewhere and in some way it all do sense, and that there were reasons for everything.That belief had been sternly tested during the past year. vindicatory now Elenas snuff it from the dead had swept away all his doubts. It had codmed to prove everything that hed always wanted to regard in.You wouldnt give her back to us for honorable a few days, and accordingly base full her away again? he wondered, and the query was really a form of praying. You wouldnt would You?Because the supposition of a terra firma without Elena, without hersparkle her strong es balklish out her way of wankting into crazy adventures and hence depictting out of them, even much crazily intimately, it was in addition much to lose. The world would be painted in serious grays and dark browns again without her. at that dwelling would be no fire-engine reds, no flashes of parakeet green, no cerulean, no daffodil, no mercury specie and no gilt. No sprinkles of gold in endless blue lapis lazuli look.Elllleeeeeeenaaaa Damn you, you answer me Its Matt, Elena Elleeeeee He broke impinge on sort of fastly and listened. For a moment his observet leaped and his whole phonebox started. except hence he do out the oral communication he could hear.Eleeeeeenaaa? M aaaatt? Where atomic number 18 you? reasonable? comme il faut Im here He dour his flashlight straight up, frail twisting it in a circle. give the bounce you see me?Can you see us?Matt pivoted slowly. And yes there were the beams of one flashlight, cardinal flashlights, threeHis heart leaped to seethree beams. Im coming toward you, he shouted, and suited the action to the word. Secrecy had been long ago left behind. He was track into things, yanking at tendrils that tested to grab his ankles, save bellowing all the while, Stay where you argon Im coming to youAnd indeed the flashlight beams were veracious in front of him, blinding him, and somehow he had clean in his accouterments, and Bonnie was crying. That at least lent the business office some normality. Bonnie was crying against his boob and he was looking at Meredith, who was rejoiced anxiously, and atMrs. Flowers? It had to be, she was wearing that gardening hat with the artificial bloomings on it, as well as what looked homogeneous approximately cardinal or eight woolly sweaters.Mrs. Flowers? he state, his mouth finally catching up with his brain. except wheres Elena?There was a sudden droop in the three people watching him, as if they had been on tiptoes for news, and now they had slumped in disappointment.We havent seen her, Meredith verbalize quietly. Youwere with her.Iwas with her, yeah. But then Damon came.He ail her , Meredith Matt felt Bonnies arms clench on him. He had her trilled on the ground having seizures. I conceive of hes passing game to kill her. And he hurt me. I guess I blacked out. When I woke up she was gone.He took her away? Bonnie acquireed fiercely.Yeah, only whenI dont on a lower floorstand what happened next. Painfully, he explained about Elena seemingly jumping out of the car and the tracks that led nowhere.Bonnie shivered in his arms.And then some other weird stuff happened, Matt said. Slowly, faltering some times, he did his best to explain a bout Kristin, and the similarities to Tami.That is beneficial plain weird, Bonnie said. I opinion I had an answer, but if Kristin hasnt had any disturb with any of the other girlsYou were probably thought something about the Salem witches, dear, said Mrs. Flowers. Matt still couldnt yield employ to Mrs. Flowerstalking to them. She went on, But you dont really know with whom Kristin has been in the culture few days. Or with whom Jim has been, for that matter. Children have quite a lot of freedom in this day and age, and he capabilityiness be what do they call it? acarrier .Besides, even if this is possession, it freshthorn be an intactly different affable of possession, Meredith said. Kristin lives out in the venerable Wood. The Old Wood is full of these insects these malach. Who knows whether it happened when she manifestly stepped away her door? Who knows what was waiting for her? immediately Bonnie was shaking in Matts arms. Theyd move out all the flashlights but one, to conserve energy, but it sure make for spooky surroundings.But what about the telepathy? Matt said to Mrs. Flowers. I stiff, I dont believe for a minute thatreal witches were attacking those Salem girls. I think they were repressed girls who had mass ferocity when they all got together, and somehow everything got out of hand. But how could Kristin know to call me to call me the same name that Tamra did?Maybe weve all got it all wrong, Bonnie said, her voice buried somewhere in Matts solar plexus. Maybe its not kindred Salem at all, where the the violence spread out horizontally, if you see what I mean. Maybe theres somebody on top here, whos spreading it wherever they want to.There was a brief silence, and then Mrs. Flowers murmured, by of the mouths of babes and sucklingsYou mean you think thats proper? But then who is it thats on top? Whos doing all of this? Meredith demanded. It cant be Damon because Damon saved Bonnie double and me once. Before anyone could mu ster words to ask aboutthat , she was going on. Elena was pretty sure that something was possessingDamon . So who else is it?Somebody we havent met yet, Bonnie muttered ominously. Somebody we bent going to like.With perfect timing there was the cranch of a branch behind them. As one person, as one body, they turned to look.What I really want, Damon said to Elena, is to get you fond(p). And that either means cooking you something red-hot so youll warm up from the inside or postting you in the bathroom so youll warm up from the outside. And considering what happened last time Idont feel I can eat anything.Come on, its an American tradition. Apple soup? Moms homemake cowardly pie?She chuckled in spite of herself, then winced. Its apple pie and Moms homemade chicken soup. But you didnt do badly, for a start.Well? I bargain not to mix the apples and the chicken together.I could try some soup, Elena said slowly. And, oh, Damon Im so thirsty good for plain irrigate. Please.I kn ow, but youll drink too much, get pains. Ill make soup.It comes in small(a) cans with red paper on them. You ottoman the tab on top to make it come off. Elena stopped as he turned to the door.Damon knew she had serious doubts about the entire project, but he also knew that if he brought her anything passably drinkable she would drink it. inclination did that to you.He was unliving proof of the example.As he went through the door there was a sudden horrendous noise, like a pair of kitchen choppers coming together. It nearly took off his his rear from top to bottom, by the sound of it.DamonA voice crying wonky through the door. Damon, are you all right? Damon Answer meInstead, he turned around, study the door, which looked perfectly normal, and blossomed it. Anyone watching him open it would have wondered because he put a key in the un curled door, said Elenas room and then unlocked and loose the door.When he got inside, he ran.Elena was lying in a hopeless tangle of sheets an d blankets on the floor. She was nerve-racking to get up, but her plaque was blue-white with pain.What pushed you off the love? he said. He was going to kill Shinichislowly . nonhing. I hear a terrible sound proficient as the door shut. I tried to get to you, but Damon stared at her.I tried to get to you, but This broken, hurting, washed-out creature had tried to rescuehim ? Tried so hard that shed fallen off her bed?Im sorry, she said, with tears in her eyes. I cant get used to gravity. are you hurt?not as much as you are, he said, purposely memory his voice rough, his eyes averted. I did something stupid, leaving the room, and the housereminded me.What are you talking about? said the arthritic Elena, dressed only in sheets.This key, Damon held it up for her to see. It was golden and could be worn as a ring, but two wing folded out and made a charming key.Whats wrong with it?The way I used it. This key has the power of the kitsune in it, and it pass on unlock anythin g and take you anywhere, but the way it works is that you put it into the lock, say where you want to go, and then turn the key. I forgot to do that in leaving your room.Elena looked puzzled. But what if a key doesnt have a lock in it? Most bedroom doors dont have locks.This key goes into any door. You might say it makes its own lock. Its a kitsune treasure which I shook out of Shinichi when I was so angry about you being hurt. Hell be wanting it back soon. Damons eyes narrow and he smiled faintly. I wonder which of us will end up keeping it. I noticed another one in the kitchen a spare, of course.Damon, all this about magical keys is interesting, but if you could let me get off the floorHe was ruthful at once. Then came the question of whether to put her on the bed or not.Ill take the bath, Elena said in a niggling voice. She unsnapped the top of her jeans and tried to scoot out of them.Wait a minute You might faint and drown. Lie down and I promise to get you clean, if youre w illing to try and eat. He had new reservations about the house.Now undress on the bed and pull the sheet over you. I do fuddled works, he added, turning away.Look, you dont have to not look. Its something I havent to a lower placestood since Icame back, Elena said. Modesty taboos. I dont see why anyone should be ashamed of their body. (This came to him in a rather muffled voice.) I mean for anyone who says divinity made us, God made us without fit out, even after rapture and Eve. If its so important, why didnt he make us with diapers on?Yes, actually, what youre saying reminds me of what I once said to the Dowager promote of France, Damon said, driven to keep her undressing while he gazed at a crack in one of the wooden panels of the wall. I said that if God were both omnipotent and omniscient, then He surely knew our destinies beforehand, and why were the righteous unredeemed to be born as sinfully indwelling as the anathemise?And what did she say?not a word. But she gi ggled and tapped me three times on the back of my hand with her fan, which I was later told was an invitation for an assignation. Alas, I had other obligations. Are you on the bed still?Yes, and Im under a sheet, Elena said wearily. If she wereDowager Queen, I appear you were glad, she added in a half-bewildered voice. Arent they the old mothers?No, Anne of Austria, Queen of France, kept her remarkable beauty to the end. She was the only redhead that Damon stopped, groping wildly for words as he vistad the bed. Elena had through as he had asked. He conscionable hadnt realized how much she would look like Aphrodite arising from the ocean. The ruffled white of the sheet came up to the warmer milk-white of her skin. She needed cleaning, surely, but just knowing that under that thin sheet she was magnificently naked was ample to make him lose his breath.She had rolled her clothes into a ball and thrown them into the utmost(a) corner of the room. He didnt blame her.He didnt think. He didnt give himself time. He simply held out his hands and said, Lemon-thyme chicken consomm, hot, in a Mikasa cup and plum flower oil, very warm, in a vial. erst the broth was duly consumed and Elena was lying on her back again, he began to gently massage her with the oil. Plum flower always made for a good start. It numbed the skin and the senses to pain, and it provided a basis for the other, more exotic, oils he think to use on her.In a way, it was much better than dumping her in a modern bath or Jacuzzi. He knew where her injuries were he could heat the oils to the beguile temperature for any of them. And instead of a hardly mobile Jacuzzi head spouting water against a bruise, he could avoid anything too sensitive in the painful sense.He started with her hair, adding a very, very light destination of oil that would make the worst tangles blowsy to brush out. After the oiling, her hair shone like gold against her skin honey on cream. Then he began with the muscles in her face tiny strokes with his thumbs over her forehead to unstable it and relax it, forcing her to relax along with his movements. Slow, notice swirls at her temples, with only the lightest of pressure. He could see the thin blue veins traced here, and he knew that deep pressure could put her to sleep.He then proceeded to upper arms, her forearms, her hands, taking her apart with superannuated strokes and the correct ancient essences to go with them, until she was zip but a loose, boneless thing under the sheet sleek and soft and yielding. He flashed his incandescent smile for a moment while pulling a toe until it popped and then the smile turned ironic. He could have what he wanted of her, now. Yes, she was in no mood to repudiate anything. But he hadnt counted on what the damned sheet would do tohim . Everyone knew that a jot of covering, no matter how simple, always move attention to the taboo area as pure nakedness did not. And massaging Elena by inches this way only fo cused him on what commit beneath the snowy fabric.After a while Elena said drowsily, Arent you going to tell the end of the story? About Anne of Austria, who was the only redhead toto, ah, remain a natural redhead to the end of her life, Damon murmured. Yes. It was said that central Richelieu was her lover.Isnt that the wicked Cardinal from theThe Three Musketeers ?Yes, but perhaps not so wicked as he was portrayed there, and certainly an able politician. And, some say, the real begin of Louisnow turn over.Its a odd name for a king.Hm?Louis Now Turn Over, Elena said, turning over and viewing a flash of creamy thigh while Damon tried to eye non-homogeneous other parts of the room.Depends on the denomination traditions of the individuals native country, Damon said wildly. exclusively he could see were replays of that glimpse of thigh.What?What?I was ask you Are you warm now? All done, Damon said and, unwisely, patted the highest curve of terrain under the towel.Hey Elena re ared up, and Damon set about by an entire body of blanch rose-gold and perfumed and sleek and with muscles like blade under the silken skin headlong fled.He came back after an enamor interval with a calming offer of more soup. Elena, dignified under her sheet, which she had made into a toga, accepted. She didnt even try to swat him on the bottom when his back was turned.Whatis this place? she wondered instead. It cant be the Dunstans theyre an old family, with an old house. They used to be farmers.Oh, lets just call it a little pied--terre of my own in the woods.Ha, Elena said. I knew you werent sleeping in trees.Damon found himself trying not to smile. Hed never been with Elena when the situation hadnt been life-or-death. Now, if he said hed found he love her mind after having massaged her naked under a sheet noNo one would ever believe him. sprightliness better? he asked.As warm as chicken-apple soup.Im never going to hear the end of that, am I?He made her stay on the be d while he thought up nightgowns, all sizes and styles, and robes, too and slippers, all in the instant of walking to what had been a bathroom, and was successful to find that it was now a move into closet with everything anyone could want in equipment casualty of night attire. From silky lingerie to good old-fashioned sleeping gowns to night-caps, this wardrobe had it all. Damon emerged with a double armful and gave Elena her choice.She picked a high-necked white nightgown made out of some modest fabric. Damon found himself stroking a regal sky-blue gown trimmed with what looked like genuine Valenciennes lace.Not my style, Elena said, chop-chop tucking it under some other robes.Not your style aroundme , Damon thought, amused. And a wise little lass you are, too. You dont want to tempt me into doing anything you might be sorry for tomorrow.All right and then you can get a good nights sleep He broke off, for she was suddenly looking at him with surprise and distress.Matt Da mon, we were looking forMatt I just remembered. We were looking for him and I I dont know. I got hurt. I remember falling and then I was here.Because I carried you here, Damon thought. Because this house is just a thought in Shinichis mind. Because the only permanent things inside it are we two.Damon took in a deep breath of air.