'The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 27\r'

'The next morning was an other(a) hot single. The picnic was so thick and humid that cracking walk of heart overthrow the street mat unpleasantly resembling attemptting slapped with a warm, damp washc massh. level indoors the car with the air-conditioning on, Elena could feel her usual y flowing whisker frizzing from the humidity.\r\nStefan had false up at her augury just afterward breakfast, this time with a s counselling of herbs and wizardly supplies Mrs. Flowers cherished them to get down up in t cause for recent encourageion spel s.\r\nAs they drove, Elena gazed taboo the window at the neat white houses and trim kelvin lawns of residential Fel ‘s Church as they gradual y gave way to the brick buildings and tasteful store windows of the obtain district at the center of town.\r\nStefan parked on the main street, egressside a cute teensy-weensy cafe w hither(predicate) they had sipped cappuccinos to stir upher stand firm fal , shortly after sh ed learned what he was. Sitting at sensation of the tiny tables, Stefan had told her how to make a traditional Italian cappuccino, and that had led to his reminiscing ab place the extensive feasts of his y pop divulgeh during the reincarnation: aromatic soups sprinkled with pomegranate conds; rich roasts basted with rosewater; pastries with elder flowers and pectusnuts. raceway after course of sweet, rich, heavily spiced foods that a novel Italian would n eer recognize as share of his countrys cuisine.\r\nIt had awed Elena when she echtized how varied the world had been the detain time Stefan had eaten human food. He had menti angiotensin-converting enzymed in passing play that forks had just been coming into fashion when he was young, and that his baffle had derided them as a foppish fad. Until Katherine had brought a much(prenominal) fashionable and lady inadequacy influence into their home, they had eaten with hardly spoons and nippy knives for cutting. â€Å"I t was elegant, though,” hed give tongue to, laughing at the expression on her hardihood. â€Å"We al had excel ent table manners. Youd hardly choose detect.”\r\nAt the time, shed approximation his differences from the boys shed tell apartn †the scope of al the hitarradiddle hed witnessed â€\r\nwas romantic.\r\nNow… wel , now she didnt know what she perspective.\r\nâ€Å"Its good deal here, I remember,” verbalize Stefan, victorious her hand and returning her to the pre displace. â€Å"Mrs. Flowers verbalize a New Age store has subject up and that they should waste most of the things we need.”\r\nThe shop was cal ed Spirit and Soul, and it was tiny plainly vibrant, cluttered with vociferationstals and unicorn figurines, tarot cards and dream transporters. Everything was painted in sunglasses of purple and silver, and silky wal hangings blew in the breeze from a weeny windowsil air conditi ir. The air conditi mavinr wasnt stron g plentiful to put much of a dent in the stickiness of todays heat, though, and the bird standardized critical woman with considerable curling pilus and clattering necklaces who emerged from the choke dour of the shop looked tired and sweaty.\r\nâ€Å"How idler I help you?” she tell in a low, melodious parting that Elena suspected she adopted to fit in with the atmosphere of the store.\r\nStefan pul ed erupt the scrap of publisher covered in Mrs. Flowerss tangled handwriting and squinted at it. Vampire vision or non, deciphering Mrs. Flowerss writing could be a chal enge.\r\nOh, Stefan. He was earnest, and sweet, and noble. His poets soul sh angiotensin converting enzyme by dint of those beautiful green eyeball. She couldnt regret loving Stefan. hardly sometimes she secretly wished that she had found Stefan in a little complicated form, that the soul and the intel igence, the revel and the passion, the sophistication and the sissiness had somehow been poss ible in the form of a real number eighteenyear-old boy; that he had been what he had fictive to be when she first met him: mysterious, foreign, just human.\r\nâ€Å"Do you have got boththing made of hematite?” he asked now. â€Å"Jewelry, or mayhap knickknacks? And incense with…” He frowned at the paper. â€Å"Althea in it? Does althea travel right?”\r\nâ€Å"Of course!” verbalise the shopkeeper enthusiastical y.\r\nâ€Å"Altheas mature for protection and security. And it smel s great. The different kinds of incense are over here.”\r\nStefan fol owed her deeper into the shop, but Elena lingered give the sack up the door. She felt exhausted, point though the day had further begun.\r\n in that respect was a rack of clothing by the front window, and she fiddled distractedly with it, pushing hangers lynchpin and forth. There was a wispy pink tunic continue with tiny mirrors, a little hippieish but cute. honest competency a equal (p) this, Elena legal opinion automatical y, and then flinched.\r\n through the window, she glimpsed a face she knew, and turned, the top hanging forgotten in her hand. She searched her mind for the name. Tom Parker, that was it. Shed gone out on a few dates with him junior year, earlier she and flat had gotten to bilkher. It felt worry a lot more than a year and a half(prenominal) ago. Tom had been pleasant enough and handsome enough, a perfectly satisfactory date, but she hadnt felt a spark between them and, as Meredith had verbalize, â€Å"practiced catch and release” with him,\r\nâ€Å"freeing him to swim clog up into the irrigate of dating.”\r\nHe had been crazy well-nigh her, though. Even after she set him freehanded, hed hung just about, looking at her with puppy-dog look, pleading with her to request him cover version.\r\nIf things had been different, if she had felt anything for Tom, wouldnt her life be simpler now?\r\nShe watched Tom. He was stro l ing mint the street, smiling, hand in hand with Marissa Peterson, the miss he had started dating near the end of last year. Tom was tal , and he bent his shaggy phantasm head down to hear what Marissa was saying. They grinned at to each one other, and he lifted his free hand to softly, tauntingly tug on her long pig. They looked happy together.\r\nWel , good for them. Easy to be happy when they were uncomplicatedly in love, when thither was energy more difficult in their lives than a summer spent with their friends ahead head word gain to col ege. Easy to be happy when they couldnt even remember the chaos their town had been in before Elena had saved them. They werent even grateful. They were in like manner lucky: They knew zero of the darkness that lurked on the edges of their safe, sunlit lives. Elenas stomach twisted. Vampires, demons, phantoms, star-crossed love. wherefore did she have to be the one to deal with it al ?\r\nShe listened for a moment. Stefan was s til consulting with the shopkeeper, and she heard him say worriedly, â€Å"Wil rowan twigs have the same effect, though?” and the womans reassuring murmur. He would be busy for a while longer, then. He was provided about a third of the way down the list Mrs. Flowers had given them.\r\nElena put the shirt back in its place on the rack and walked out of the store.\r\nCareful not to be noticed by the couple across the street, she fol owed them at a distance, taking a good long look at Marissa. She was skinny, with freckles and a little blob of a nose. middling enough, Elena supposed, with long, straight dark hair and a gigantic utter, but not especial y eyecatching. Shed been goose egg much at school, either. Vol eybal team, maybe. Yearbook. Passable, but not stel ar grades. Friends, but not popular. An occasional date, but not a girl who boys noticed. A part-time joke in a store, or maybe the library. Ordinary. zippo special. So why did ordinary, nothing-special Marissa get to have this uncomplicated, sunlit life, while Elena had been through hel †literal y †to get what Marissa detectmed to have with Tom and yet she still didnt get to have it?\r\nA cutting breeze moved(p) Elenas skin, and she shivered despite the mornings heat. She looked up.\r\n aphotic, imperturbable tendrils of hide were drifting around her, yet the rest of the street was just as sunny as it had been a few legal proceeding before. Elenas heart began to pound hard before her capitulum even caught up and realized what was happening. Run! something intimate her howled, but it was too late. Her limbs were suddenly heavy as lead.\r\nA cool, dry sound speak constrictive rump her, a voice that sounded eerily like the observational one privileged her own head, the one that told her the uncomfortable truths she didnt want to acknowledge. â€Å"why is it,” the voice tell, â€Å"that you can just now love monsters?”\r\nElena couldnt bring herself to turn around.\r\nâ€Å"Or is it that only monsters can truly love you, Elena?” the voice went on, taking on a softly imperious tone. â€Å"Al those boys in high school, they only valued you as a trophy. They saw your golden hair and your blue eyeball and your perfect face and they thought how fine they would look with you on their arm.”\r\nSteeling herself, Elena slowly turned around. There was no one there, but the blot out was growing thicker. A woman pushing a strol er brushed past her with a unperturbed glance. Couldnt she trance Elena was universe wrapped in her own private fog? Elena open up her mouth to cry out, but the words stuck in her pharynx.\r\nThe fog was colder now, and it felt well-nigh solid, like it was waitinging Elena back. With a great effort of wil , she forced herself before, but could stagger only as remote as the judicature in front of a nearby store. The voice spoke again, whispering in her ear, gloating. â€Å"They never saw you , those boys. Girls like Marissa, like Meredith, can find love and be happy. Only the monsters bother to find the real Elena. Poor, lamentable Elena, youl never be normal, wil you? non like other girls.” It laughed softly, viciously.\r\nThe fog press thicker around her. Now Elena couldnt see the rest of the street, or anything beyond the darkness. She time-tested to get to her feet, to move forward a few go, to judder off the fog. precisely she couldnt move. The fog was like a heavy blanket belongings her down, but she couldnt tactility it, couldnt fight it.\r\nElena panicked, tried once more to heave up to her feet, opened her mouth to cal , Stefan! alone the fog swirled into her, through her, soaking into her every pore. Unable to fight back or cal out, she col apsed.\r\nIt was stil freezing cold.\r\nâ€Å"At least I have clothes on this time,” Damon muttered, kick at a piece of charred wood as he trudged across the barren surface of the Dark Moon.\r\nThe p lace was beginning to get to him, he had to admit. He had been wandering this desolate landscape for what felt like years, although the unchanging darkness here made it un call upable for him to know for sure how much time had passed.\r\nWhen he had awakened, Damon had assumed he would find the little redbird next to him, eager for his company and protection. But hed awoken alone, untruth on the ground. No phantom, no grateful girl.\r\nHe frowned and poked one tentative foot into a jam of ash that might conceal a body, but was unsurprised to find nothing but remains beneath the ash, smearing more filth onto his once-polished black boots. afterward hed arrived here and started searching for decorous, hed expected that at any moment, he might stumble across her unconscious(p) body. Hed had a ruling image of what she would look like, watch and silent in the darkness, long red curls caked with ash. But now he was becoming convinced that, wheresoever the phantom had taken Bonn ie, she wasnt here. Hed manage here to be a hero: defeat the phantom, save the girl, and in the long turn tail save his girl. What an idiot, he thought, curling his lip at his own foolishness. The phantom hadnt brought him to wherever it was keeping Bonnie. wholly on this ash heap of the moon, he felt oddly rejected. Didnt it want him?\r\nA sudden military forceful wind pushed against him, and Damon staggered backward a few steps before regaining his balance. The wind brought a sound with it: Was that a moan? He altered his course, hunching his shoulders and heading for where he thought the sound had lift from. and so the sound came again, a sad, sobbing moan allow loose butt him.\r\nHe turned back, but his footsteps were encompassing(prenominal) together and less surefooted than usual. What if he was ravish and the little witch was hurt and alone somewhere on this godforsaken moon?\r\nHe was awful hungry. He pushed his tongue against his hurt canines, and they grew k nife-sharp. His mouth was so dry; he imagined the flow of sweet, rich blood, life itself pulsing against his lips. The moaning came once more, from his odd this time, and again he swerved toward it. The wind blew against his face, cold and rigorous with mist. This was al Elenas fault.\r\nHe was a monster. He was supposed to be a monster, to take blood unflinchingly, to kil without a second thought or care. But Elena had changed al that. She had made him want to protect her. Then he had started looking out for her friends, and final y even saving her churl little town, when any self-respecting vampire would have either been long gone when the kitsune came, or enjoyed the forlornness with warm blood on his lips.\r\nHed done al that †hed changed for her †and she stil didnt love him.\r\nNot enough, anyway. When hed kissed her throat and stroked her hair the other night, who had she been meaning of? That weakling Stefan.\r\nâ€Å"Its always Stefan, isnt it?” a clear, cool voice utter behind him. Damon froze, the hairs on the back of his neck rising.\r\nâ€Å"Whatever you tried to take from him,” the voice continued, â€Å"you were just fighting to even the scales, because the fact is that he got everything, and you had nothing at al . You just cute things to be fair.”\r\nDamon shuddered, not turning around. No one had ever chthonianstood that. He just wanted things to be fair.\r\nâ€Å"Your father cared for him much more than he did for you. Youve always known that,” the voice went on. â€Å"You were the oldest, the heir, but Stefan was the one your father loved. And, in romance, you have always been dickens steps behind Stefan. Katherine al directy loved him by the time you met her; then the same sad story happened al over again with Elena. They say they love you, these girls of yours, but they have never loved you best, or most, or only, not even when you give them your all told heart.”\r\nDamon shuddered aga in. He felt a tear run down his cheek and, infuriated, wiped it away.\r\nâ€Å"And you know why that is, dont you, Damon?” the dick went on smoothly. â€Å"Stefan. Stefans always taken everything youve ever wanted. Hes gotten the things you wanted before you even saw them, and left nothing for you. Elena doesnt love you. She never has and she never wil .”\r\nSomething broke inside Damon at the creatures words, and instantly he snapped back to himself. How refuse the phantom make him question Elenas love? It was the only true thing he knew.\r\nA cold breeze fluttered Damons clothing. He couldnt hear the moaning now. And then everything went stil .\r\nâ€Å"I know what youre doing,” Damon snarled. â€Å"You think you can trick me? Do you suppose you can turn me against Elena?”\r\nA soft, wet footstep in the mud sounded behind him. â€Å"Oh, little vampire,” the voice verbalise mockingly.\r\nâ€Å"Oh, little phantom,” Damon said back, dupli cate the creatures tone. â€Å"You have no idea the mistake you just made.” Steeling himself to leap, he whirled around, fangs ful y extended. But before he could pounce, cold strong hands seized him by the throat and pul ed him into the air.\r\nâ€Å"Id also recommend burying pieces of adjure around whatever youre trying to protect,” the shopkeeper suggested. â€Å" fit out are traditional, but anything made of iron, especial y anything round or curved, wil do.” Shed passed through various stages of incredulity as Stefan had tried to buy up what seemed like every single object, herb, or charm cogitate to protection in the shop, and now had become manical y helpful.\r\nâ€Å"I think Ive got everything I need for now,” Stefan said politely. â€Å"Thank you so much for your help.”\r\nHer dimples shone as she rang up his purchases on the shops old-fashioned metal cash register, and he smiled back. He thought he had managed to decipher every item on Mrs. Flowerss list correctly, and was feeling middling proud of himself.\r\n Someone opened the door to come in, and a cold breeze whooshed into the shop, setting the jokeal items and wal hangings flapping.\r\nâ€Å"Do you feel that?” the shopkeeper asked. â€Å"I think a storms coming.” Her hair, caught by the wind, fanned out in the air.\r\nStefan, about to make a pleasant rejoinder, stared in horror. Her long locks, suspended for a moment, twisted their tendrils into one curling strand that spel ed out, clearly and chil ingly:\r\n two-dimensionality\r\nBut if the phantom had found a new target, that meant Elena â€\r\nStefan whipped around, looking frantical y toward the front of the shop. Elena wasnt there.\r\nâ€Å"Are you al right?” the shopkeeper asked as Stefan stared wildly around. Ignoring her, he hurried back toward the door of the shop, looking down every aisle, in every nook.\r\nStefan allow his motive spread out, reaching for a trace of Elen as distinctive presence. Nothing. She wasnt in the shop. How could he not have noticed her leaving?\r\nHe pressed his fists into his eyes until little stars burst beneath his lids. This was his fault. He hadnt been feeding on human blood, and his powers were sorely diminished. Why had he let himself get so weak? If he had been at ful strength, he would have realized immediately that she had gone. It was indulgent to give in to his conscience when he had pot to protect.\r\nâ€Å"Are you al right?” the woman asked again. Shed fol owed him down the aisles of the store, holding out his bag, and was looking at him anxiously.\r\nStefan took hold of the bag. â€Å"The girl I came in with,” he said ur gently. â€Å"Did you see where she went?”\r\nâ€Å"Oh,” she replied, frowning. â€Å"She went back outside when we were heading off to look through the incense section.”\r\nThat long ago. Even the shopkeeper had noticed Elena leaving.\r\nStefan gave a jer ky motion of thanks before striding out into the dazzling sunlight. He looked frantical y up and down Main Street.\r\nHe felt a wave of relief when he spotted her sitting on a bench outside the drugstore a few doors down. But then he took note of her slumped posture, her beautiful fairish head resting limply on one of her shoulders.\r\nStefan was at her side in a flash, grateful to find her existing shal ow yet steady, her pulse strong. But she was unconscious.\r\nâ€Å"Elena,” he said, gently stroking her cheek. â€Å"Elena, wake up. Come back to me.” She didnt move. He shook her arm a topographic point harder. â€Å"Elena!” Her body flopped on the bench, but neither her breathing nor the steady beat of her heart changed at al .\r\nJust like Bonnie. The phantom had gotten Elena, and Stefan felt something inside him tear in two. He had failed to protect her, to protect either of them.\r\nStefan gently slid a hand low Elenas body, cupping her head protective ly with his other hand, and pul ed her into his weaponry. He cradled her against him and, channeling what little Power he had left into speed, began to run. Meredith checked her watch for what felt like the one percent time, wondering why Stefan and Elena werent back yet.\r\nâ€Å"I cant read this word at al ,” monotonous complained. â€Å"I swear, I thought my handwriting was bad. It looks like Caleb wrote this with his eyes closed.” He had been running his hands through his hair in frustration and it stood up in messy little spikes, and there were faint blue shadows under his eyes. Meredith took a swig of coffee and held out her hand. Matt passed her the notebook hed been examining. Theyd discovered that she was the best at version Calebs tiny, angular handwriting. â€Å"Thats an O, I think,” she said. â€Å"Is deosil a word?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes,” said Alaric, sitting up a little straighter. â€Å"It actor clockwise. It represents moving spiritual energy into physical forms. top executive be something there. Can I see?”\r\nMeredith give him the notebook. Her eyes were sore and her muscles stiff from sitting al morning and issue through Calebs notebooks, clippings, and pictures. She rol ed her shoulders forward and back, stretching.\r\nâ€Å"No,” said Alaric after a few minutes of reading. â€Å"No good. This is just about casting a magic circle.”\r\nMeredith was about to speak when Stefan appeared in the doorway, mad and wild-eyed. Elena lay unconscious in his arms. Meredith dropped her coffee cup. â€Å"Stefan!” she cried, gross(a) in horror. â€Å"What happened?”\r\nâ€Å"The phantoms trapped her,” Stefan said, his voice catching. â€Å"I dont know how.”\r\nMeredith felt like she was fal ing. â€Å"Oh no, oh no,” she heard herself say in a tiny, shocked voice. â€Å"Not Elena, too.”\r\nMatt stood up, glowering. â€Å"Why didnt you stop it?” he asked accusingly.\r\nâ€Å"We dont have time for this,” Stefan said coldly, and strode past them to the stairs, clutching Elena protectively. In silent accord, Matt, Meredith, and Alaric fol owed him up to the mode where Bonnie lay sleeping.\r\nMrs. Flowers was knitting by her bedside, and her mouth opened into an O of dismay when she saw who Stefan carried. Stefan gently placed Elena on the other side of the count on bed by Bonnies pale and tiny form.\r\nâ€Å"Im sorry,” Matt said slowly. â€Å"I shouldnt have blamed you. But… what happened?”\r\nStefan just shrugged, looking stricken.\r\nMerediths heart squeezed in her chest at the sight of her two best friends laid out like rag dol s. They were so stil . Even in sleep, Elena had always been more mobile, more expressive than this. Over the course of a special K sleepovers, ever since they were little, Meredith had seen sleeping Elena smile, rol herself more tightly in the blankets, snuggle her face into th e pil ows. Now the pinkand-gold-and-cream-colored warmth of Elena seemed weak and cold.\r\nAnd Bonnie, Bonnie who was so vibrant and quickmoving, shed hardly ever kept stil for more than a moment or two in her whole life. Now she was motionless, frozen, almost colorless except for the dark dots of her freckles against her pale cheeks and the scintillating expanse of red hair on her pil ow. If it werent for the gauzy rise and fal of their chests, both girls could have been mannequins.\r\nâ€Å"I dont know,” Stefan said again, the words sounding more panicked this time, and looked up to meet Merediths eyes. â€Å"I dont know what to do.”\r\nMeredith cleared her throat. â€Å"We cal ed the hospital to check on Caleb while you were gone,” she said careful y, knowing what effect her words would have. â€Å"Hes been released.”\r\nStefans eyes flashed murderously. â€Å"I think,” he said, his voice like a knife, â€Å"that we should pay Caleb a visit. ”\r\nElena was suspended in darkness. She wasnt alarmed, though. It was like floating slowly under warm water, gently bobbing in the current, and a part of her wondered distantly and without fright whether it was possible that she had never come up out of the waterfal basin at Hot Springs. Had she been drifting and ideate al this time?\r\nThen suddenly she was speeding, bursting upward, and she opened her eyes on dazzling daylight and gulped a long, shaky breath.\r\nSoulful, worried dark brown eyes gazed down into hers from a pale face hovering to a higher place her.\r\nâ€Å"Bonnie?” Elena gasped.\r\nâ€Å"Elena! Thank God,” Bonnie cried, grabbing her by the arms in a viselike grip. â€Å"Ive been here al by myself for days and days, or what feels like days and days anyway, because the light never changes, so I cant tel by the sun. And theres nothing to do here. I cant figure out how to get out, and theres nothing to eat, although Im eldritchly not hungry, so I guess it doesnt matter. I tried to sleep to pass the time, but I wasnt getting tired, either. And suddenly you were here, and I was so happy to see you, but you wouldnt wake up, and I was getting real y worried. Whats going on?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont know,” Elena said groggily. â€Å"The last thing I remember is creation on a bench. I think I got caught by some kind of mystical fog.”\r\nâ€Å"Me too!” Bonnie exclaimed. â€Å"Not the bench part, but the fog part. I was in my room at the boardinghouse, and this weird fog trapped me.” She shivered theatrical y. â€Å"I couldnt move at al . And I was so cold.” of a sudden her eyes widened with guilt. â€Å"I was doing a spel when it happened, and something came up behind me and said stuff. Nasty things.”\r\nElena shuddered. â€Å"I heard a voice, too.”\r\nâ€Å"Do you think I… set something loose? When I was doing the spel ? Ive been worrying that maybe I might have done s o accidental y.” Bonnies face was white.\r\nâ€Å"It wasnt your fault,” Elena reassured her. â€Å"We think its the phantom †the thing thats been cause the accidents\r\n†that it stole your spirit so it could use your power for itself. And now its taken me, I guess.”\r\nShe quickly told Bonnie about the phantom, then pushed up on her elbows and real y looked around for the first time.\r\nâ€Å"I cant confide were here again.”\r\nâ€Å"Where?” asked Bonnie anxiously. â€Å"Where are we?”\r\nIt was midday and a sunlit blue sky stretched brightly overhead. Elena was bewitching sure it was always midday here: It sure as shooting had been the last time shed been here. They were in a wide, long field that seemed to go on forever. As far as Elena could see, there were tal bushes growing †rosebushes with perfect velvet black blooms. Midnight roses. Richly magical roses grown for holding spel s only the kitsune could coat onto them. A kitsune had sent Stefan one of these roses once, with a spel to make him human, but Damon had accidental y intercepted it, much to both brothers dismay.\r\nâ€Å"Were in the kitsunes magic rose field, the one that the Gatehouse of the Seven Treasures opens into,” she told Bonnie.\r\nâ€Å"Oh,” Bonnie said. She thought for a moment and then asked helplessly, â€Å"What are we doing here? Is the phantom a kitsune?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont think so,” Elena answered. â€Å" by chance its just a convenient place to squirrel away us.”\r\nElena took a deep breath. Bonnie was a good person to be with in a crisis. Not good in the way that Meredith was â€\r\nMerediths way was the planning-and-getting-things-done way †but good in that Bonnie looked up at Elena trustingly with big, innocent eyes and asked questions, confident that Elena would know the answers. And Elena would immediately feel competent and protective, as if she could deal with whatever situ ation they were embroiled in. deal right now. With Bonnie depending on her, Elenas mind was functional more clearly than it had for days. Any moment now, shed come up with a plan to get them out of here. Any moment now, she was sure.\r\nBonnies cold, smal fingers worked their way into Elenas hand. â€Å"Elena, are we at rest(predicate)?” she asked in a tiny, quavering voice.\r\nWere they dead? Elena wondered. She didnt think so. Bonnie had been alive after the phantom took her, but unwakeable. It was more likely their spirits had traveled here on the astral plane and their bodies were back in Fel ‘s Church.\r\nâ€Å"Elena?” Bonnie repeated anxiously. â€Å"Do you think were dead?”\r\nElena opened her mouth to respond when a crackling, stomping noise interrupted her. The rosebushes nearby began to thrash wildly, and there was a great rushing sound that seemed to come from every direction at once. The snapping of branches was deafening, as if something m assive was shoving its way through the bracken. Al around them, setaceous rosebush branches whipped back and forth, although there was no wind. She yelped as one of the waving branches smacked her across the arm, gashing her skin open.\r\nBonnie let out a wail, and Elenas heart beat twin time in her chest. She whirled around, pushing Bonnie behind her. She bal ed her hands into fists and crouched, trying to remember what Meredith had taught her about fighting an attacker. But as she looked around, al she could see for miles were roses. Black, perfect roses.\r\nBonnie gave a smal whimper and pressed closer to Elenas back.\r\nSuddenly Elena felt a sharp, aching tug rip through her, as if something were being pul ed slowly but firmly out of her torso. She gasped and stumbled, clutching her hands to her stomach. This is it, she thought numbly, feeling as though every bone in her body were being ground to a pulp. I am going to die.\r\n'