The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Midnight

by L. J. Smith

  He followed Stefan to the kitchen where Elena, Meredith, and Mrs. Flowers were—what else?—drinking mugs of tea.

  And Matt felt a twinge when Elena instantly noticed the limp and got up and went to Stefan, and Stefan held her tightly, running reassuring fingers through her hair. Matt couldn’t help but wonder, though—was that glorious golden hair turning lighter? More like the silvery gold it had been when Elena had first gone with Stefan and was on her way to turning into a vampire? Stefan certainly seemed to be inspecting it closely, turning each handful as he raked his fingers through it.

  “Any luck?” Elena asked him, tension in her voice.

  Wearily, Stefan shook his head. “I went up streets and down streets and wherever I found a—a young girl who was contorted, or whirling round and round, or doing any other of the things the papers mentioned, I tried to Influence them. Well, maybe I shouldn’t have bothered with the whirling girls. I couldn’t catch their eyes. But the final count is zero for eleven.”

  Elena turned toward Meredith in agitation. “What do we do?”

  Mrs. Flowers busily began rummaging through bundles of herbs that hung above her stove. “You need a nice cup of tea.”

  “And a rest,” Meredith said, patting him lightly on the hand. “Can I get you anything?”

  “Well—I’ve got a new idea—scrying. But I need Misao’s star ball to see if it will work. Don’t worry,” he added, “I won’t use any of the Power in it; I just need to look at the surface.”

  “I’ll bring it,” Elena offered, getting up promptly from where she was sitting on his lap. Matt started slightly and looked at Mrs. Flowers as Elena went to the door of the root cellar and pushed. Nothing moved and Mrs. Flowers simply watched benignly. It was Stefan who rose to help her, still limping. Then Matt and Meredith got up, Meredith asking, “Mrs. Flowers, are you sure we should keep the star ball in that same safe?”

  “Mama says we’re doing the right thing,” Mrs. Flowers answered serenely.

  After that things happened very fast.

  As if they’d rehearsed it, Meredith pressed the exact place to open the root cellar door. Elena fell to her hands and knees. Faster than even he had imagined he could go, Matt went barreling toward Stefan with one shoulder down. Mrs. Flowers was frantically pulling great swaths of dried herbs down from where they hung above the kitchen table.

  And then Matt was hitting Stefan with all the power in his body and Stefan was stumbling over Elena, his head going down and down and meeting no resistance on the way. Meredith was coming at him sideways and helping him do a complete forward flip in the air. As soon as the flip took him out of the doorway and he was cartwheeling down the stairs, Elena got up and shut the door and Meredith leaned against it, as Matt shouted, “How do you keep in a kitsune?”

  “These might help,” gasped Mrs. Flowers, stuffing odiferous herbs into the crack under the door.

  “And—iron!” cried Elena, and she and Meredith and Matt all ran to the den where there was an enormous, tripartite iron fire screen. Somehow they bundled it back to the kitchen and set it upright against the root cellar door. Just then the first crash came from the inside against it, but the iron was heavy and the second crash against the door was weaker.

  “What are you doing? Have you all gone crazy?” Stefan shouted plaintively, but as the entire group began to cover the door in Post-it Note amulets, he cursed instead and became pure Shinichi. “You’ll be sorry, damn you! Misao’s not right. She cries and cries. You’ll make it up to her with your blood, but not before I introduce you to some special friends of mine. The kind who know how to cause real pain!”

  Elena lifted her head, as if hearing something. Matt watched her frown. Then she called to Shinichi, “Don’t even try to probe for Damon. He’s gone. And if you try to track him I’ll fry your brains.”

  Sullen silence greeted her from the root cellar.

  “My goodness gracious, what next?” murmured Mrs. Flowers.

  Elena simply nodded for the others to follow her, and they went all the way to the very top of the house—Stefan’s room—and spoke in whispers.

  “How did you know?”

  “Did you use telepathy?”

  “I didn’t know at first,” Matt admitted, “but Elena was acting as if the star ball was in the root cellar. Stefan knows it’s not there. I guess,” he added with a guilty start, “that I invited him in.”

  “I knew as soon as he started groping my hair,” Elena said with a shudder. “Stefan and D—I mean, Stefan knows I only like it touched lightly, and at the ends. Not mauled like that. Remember all Shinichi’s little songs about golden hair? He’s a nutcase. Anyway, I could tell from the feel of his mind.”

  Matt felt ashamed. All his wondering about Elena maybe changing into a vampire…and this was the answer, he thought.

  “I noticed his lapis ring,” Meredith said. “I saw him with it on his right hand as he went out earlier. When he came back he had it on his left hand.”

  There was a brief pause as they all stared at her. She shrugged. “It was part of my training, noticing little things.”

  “Good point,” Matt said at last. “Good point. He wouldn’t be able to change it in sunlight.”

  “How did you know, Mrs. Flowers?” Elena asked. “Or was it just the way we were behaving?”

  “Goodness, no, you’re all very good little actors. But as soon as he stepped over the threshold Mama fairly shrieked at me: ‘What are you doing, letting a kitsune into your house?’ So then I knew what we were in for.”

  “We beat him!” Elena said, beaming. “We actually caught Shinichi off guard! I can hardly believe it.”

  “Believe it,” Meredith said with a wry smile. “He was off guard for a moment. He’ll be thinking up revenge right now.”

  Something else was worrying Matt. He turned to Elena. “I thought that you said that both you and Shinichi had keys that could take you anywhere, anytime. So why couldn’t he have just said, ‘Take me inside the boardinghouse where the star ball is’?”

  “Those were different keys from the Twin Fox key,” Elena said, her brows drawn together. “They’re, like, the Master Keys and Shinichi and Misao still have them both. I don’t know why he didn’t use his. Although it would have given him away the moment he was inside.”

  “Not if he went inside the root cellar, and stayed there the whole time,” Meredith said. “And maybe a Master Key can override the ‘not invited inside’ rule.”

  Mrs. Flowers said, “But Mama still would have told me. Also there are no keyholes in the root cellar. At all.”

  “‘No keyholes’ wouldn’t matter, I don’t think,” Elena answered. “I think he just wanted to show how clever he was, and how he could fool us into giving him Misao’s star ball.”

  Before anyone else could say a word, Meredith held out her palm, with a shining key on it. The key was golden with diamonds inset and had a very familiar outline.

  “That’s one of the Master Keys!” cried Elena. “It’s what we thought the Twin Fox key would look like!”

  “It sort of came out of his jeans pocket when he did that flip,” Meredith said innocently.

  “When you were flipping him over me, you mean,” said Elena. “I suppose you picked his pocket too.”

  “So, right now, Shinichi doesn’t have a key to escape with!” Matt said excitedly.

  “No key to make keyholes,” Elena agreed, dimpling.

  “He can have fun changing into a mole and burrowing out of the root cellar,” Meredith said coolly. “That’s if he’s got his transforming gear or whatever with him.” She added, with a troubled change in her voice, “I wonder…if we should have Matt tell one other person where he’s actually hidden the star ball. Just…well, just in case.”

  Matt saw knitted brows all around him. But suddenly the realization hit him that he had to tell someone that he’d hidden the star ball in his closet. The group—including Stefan—had picked him to hide it because he had so stubbornly resiste
d when Shinichi was using Damon’s body as a puppet to torture him a month ago. Matt had proved then that he would die in hideous pain rather than endanger his friends. But if Matt were to die now, Misao’s star ball might be lost to the group forever. And only Matt knew how close he had come today to tumbling down the stairs along with Shinichi.

  Far below they all heard a shout. “Hello! Is anybody home? Elena!”

  “That’s my Stefan,” Elena said and then, without a shred of dignity, she ran to launch herself from the foyer into his arms. He looked startled, but managed to break her fall before they both went down on the porch.

  “What’s been going on?” he said, his body vibrating infinitesimally, as with the urge to fight. “The whole house smells like kitsune!”

  “It’s all right,” Elena said. “Come and see.” She led him upstairs to his room. “We’ve got him in the root cellar,” she added.

  Stefan looked confused. “You’ve got who in the root cellar?”

  “With iron against the door,” Matt said triumphantly. “And herbs and amulets all over it. And, anyway, Meredith got his key.”

  “His key? You’re talking about—Shinichi?” Stefan turned on Meredith, green eyes wide. “While I’ve been gone?”

  “It was mostly an accident. I sort of stuck my hand in his pocket when he was upside down and off balance. And I lucked out and got the Master Key—unless this is an ordinary house key.”

  Stefan stared at it. “It’s the real thing. Elena knows that. Meredith, you’re incredible!”

  “Yes, it’s the right one,” Elena confirmed. “I remember the shape—pretty elaborate, yes?” She took it from Meredith’s hand.

  “What are you going to—”

  “Might as well test it,” Elena said with a mischievous smile. She walked to the door of the room, shut it, said, “The den downstairs,” inserted the winged key in the lock, and opened the door, stepping through and shutting the door behind her. Before anyone could speak, she was back, with the poker from the den held aloft in triumph.

  “It works!” Stefan cried.

  “That’s amazing,” Matt said.

  Stefan looked almost feverish. “But don’t you realize what it means? It means we can use this key. We can go anywhere we like without using Power. Even to the Dark Dimension! But first—while he’s still here—we ought to do something about Shinichi.”

  “You’re in no condition to do that now, dear Stefan,” Mrs. Flowers said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but the truth is that we have been very, very lucky. That wicked kitsune was off guard back then. He won’t be now.”

  “I still have to try,” Stefan said quietly. “Every one of you has been tormented or had to fight—whether with your fists or your minds,” he added, bowing slightly to Mrs. Flowers. “I’ve suffered but I’ve never had a chance to fight him. I have to try.”

  Matt said, just as quietly, “I’ll go with you.”

  Elena added, “We can all fight together. Right, Meredith?”

  Meredith nodded slowly, taking Stefan’s poker from his fireplace. “Yes. It may be a low blow, but—together.”

  “I say it’s a higher blow than letting him live and go on hurting people. Anyway, we’ll take care of it…together,” Elena said firmly. “Right now!”

  Matt started to get up, but his motion was frozen in midair as he stared in horror. Simultaneously, with the grace of hunting lionesses or ballet dancers the two girls closed in on Stefan, and simultaneously they swung their separate pokers; Elena hitting him in the head and Meredith hitting him squarely in the groin. Stefan reeled away from the blow to the head, but simply said, “Ow!” when Meredith hit him. Matt knocked Elena out of the way and then, turning as precisely as if he were on the football field, got Meredith out of “Stefan’s” way too.

  But this imposter had obviously decided not to fight back. Stefan’s form melted. Misao, green leaves woven into her scarlet-tipped black hair, stood before them. To Matt’s shock, her face was pinched and pale. She was obviously very ill, although still defiant. But there was no mockery in her voice tonight.

  “What have you done with my star ball? And my brother?” she demanded feebly.

  “Your brother’s safely locked up,” Matt said, hardly knowing what he was telling her. Despite all the crimes Misao had committed he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. She was clearly desperate and ill.

  “I know that. I was going to say my brother will kill you all—not as a game, but in anger.” Now Misao looked wretched and frightened. “You’ve never seen him really angry.”

  “You’ve never seen Stefan angry either,” Elena said. “At least not when he had all his Power.”

  Misao just shook her head. A dried leaf floated from her hair. “You don’t understand!”

  “I doubt we understand anything. Meredith, have we searched this girl?”

  “No, but surely she wouldn’t have brought the other one—”

  Elena said crisply, “Matt, take a book and read it. I’ll tell you when we’re done.”

  Matt was reluctant to turn his back on a kitsune, even a sick one. But when even Mrs. Flowers nodded gently he obeyed. Still, back turned or not, he could hear noises. And the noises suggested that Misao was being held tightly and searched thoroughly. At first the sounds were all negative murmurs.

  “Huh-uh…huh-uh…huh-uh…huh-oops!” There was a rattle of metal on wood.

  Matt only turned when Elena said, “Okay, you can look. It was in her front pocket.” She added to Misao, who was looking as if she might faint, “We didn’t want to have to hold you and search you. But this key—where in heaven’s name did you get keys like this, anyway?”

  A pink spot showed on Misao’s cheeks. “Heaven is right. They’re the only two left of the Master Keys—and they belong to Shinichi and me. I figured out how to steal them from the Celestial Court. That was…a long time ago.”

  At that moment they heard a car on the road—Stefan’s Porsche. In the dead silence that followed, they could also see the car through Stefan’s window as it swung into the driveway.

  “No one goes down,” Elena said tersely. “No one invites him in.”

  Meredith shot her a keen glance. “Shinichi could have tunneled out like a mole by now. And he’s already been invited in.”

  “My fault for not warning you all—but anyway, if it is Shinichi and he’s done anything to hurt Stefan he’s going to see me when I’m angry. The words Wings of Destruction just popped into my head and something inside me wants to say them.”

  There was a chill in the room.

  No one met Stefan, but in a moment they could all hear running footsteps. Stefan appeared at his door, burst through, and found himself confronted with a row of people all looking at him suspiciously.

  “What the hell is going on?” he demanded, staring at Misao, who was being held up between Meredith and Matt. “Misao—”

  Elena took two steps toward him—and wound herself around him, drawing him into a deep kiss. For a moment he resisted, but then, bit by bit, his opposition collapsed despite the roomful of observers.

  When Elena finally let go, she just leaned against Stefan, breathing hard. The others were all crimson with embarrassment. Stefan, flushed as he was, held her tightly.

  “I’m sorry,” Elena whispered. “But you’ve already ‘come home’ twice. First, it was Shinichi and we locked him in the root cellar. Then it was her.” She pointed, without looking, toward the cowering Misao. “I didn’t know how to make sure that Shinichi hadn’t escaped somehow—”

  “And you’re sure now?”

  “Oh, yes. I recognize you. You’re always ready to let me in.”

  Matt realized that she was shaking and quickly stood up so she could sit, for at least a minute or two, in peace.

  The peace lasted less than a minute.

  “I want my star ball!” Misao cried. “I need to put Power in it or I’ll go on weakening—and then you’ll have murdered me.”

  “Go on we
akening? Is the liquid evaporating out of the star ball or something?” Meredith asked. Matt was thinking about what he’d seen on his home block before the Ridgemont sheriffs had got him.

  “You’ve gathered Power to put in it?” he asked mildly. “Power from yesterday, maybe?”

  “Power from ever since you took it. But it isn’t joined with…me. With my star ball. It’s mine, but not yet.”

  “Like maybe some Power from making Cole Reece eat his guinea pig while it was alive? From making kids burn down their own houses?” Matt’s voice was gravelly.

  “What does it matter?” Misao retorted sullenly. “It’s mine. They were my ideas, not yours. You can’t keep me away—”

  “Meredith, keep me away from her. I’ve known that kid Cole since he was born. I’ll always have nightmares…”

  Misao perked up like a wilting plant getting water. “Have nightmares, have nightmares,” she whispered.

  There was a silence. Then Meredith said, carefully and expressionlessly, as if she were thinking of the stave, “You’re a nasty little thing, aren’t you? Is that your food? Bad memories, nightmares, fear of the future?”

  Misao was plainly stumped. She couldn’t see the catch. It was like asking a regular hungry teenager “How about some pizza and a Coke? Is that what you want?” Misao couldn’t even see that her appetites were wrong, so she couldn’t lie.

  “You were right before,” Stefan said forcefully. “We have your star ball. The only way to make us give it back would be to do something for us. We’re supposed to be able to control you anyway because we have it—”

  “Old-ways thinking. Obsolete,” Misao growled.

  There was a dead silence. Matt felt his stomach plummet.

  They had been betting on “old-ways thinking” all along. To get Shinichi’s star ball by making Misao tell them where it was. Their ultimate goal had been to control Shinichi using his star ball.

  “You don’t understand,” Misao said, pitifully and yet angrily at the same time. “My brother will help me fill my star ball again. But what we did in this town—it was an order, not just for fun.”