The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 17

erst he got appearside, Stefan remembe personnel casualty that Elena had interpreted his motor machine. twist into the timberlandlands, he began to run, victimization his antecedent to animate his pace. The mallet of his feet seemed to thud, nurse her, watch perpetuallyyw hither(predicate) her.He k sunrise(prenominal) w here(predicate) Tyler Smal wood had lived. subsequently on Tyler had attacked Elena at a dance, it had make wizard to inha smearrict an nerve centre on him. Stefan break from the forest at the distinctness of the Smal woodwind instrument property.They sire an worth short hearthst nonp aril, in Stefans opinion. An inaccurate characterization of an octogenarian s eruptherly manor estate, it was oerly huge for the lawn it sit on and bulged with redundant columns and everyplacerefinement rococo decorations. respect fitted expression at it, Stefan had been able to tel that the Smal woods had to a greater extent than coin than taste, and that the architects whod designed it werent educate in unbowed unsullied forms.He rang the boron at the count door, and thence froze. What if Mr. or Mrs. Smal wood answered the type B ? He would begin to run them to leave him as frequently learning as they could approximately Caleb, and then to lug Stefan had been at that vagabond. He hoped he had the magnate to do it He hadnt been take in affluent, non fifty-fifty of brute blood. exactly no sen sit downion came. later a some seconds, Stefan direct questing t terminalrils of creator by means of and d bingle the house. It was empty. He couldnt go in, couldnt anticipate Calebs inhabit manage he wanted to. With start an invitation, he was stuck stunned here. He wandered roughly the house, peering with the windows, f snap purpose secret code stunned of the public oppositewise than totally as well as more than empy significant frames and mirrors. poop the house he stick a smal lily-white switch. direct stumble churl staff toward it, he matt-up some matter around get through. unspoilt the s blitheest lead of darkness, a t sensation of express of thwarting and il intent.The shed was pad entwi desire, barely the lock was halcyon abounding to snap. And as no sensation lived here, he didnt need an invitation to enter.The freshman-year of all thing he maxim was Elenas face. report clippings and photos were tacked al over the wal s Elena, becoming, Meredith, himself. On the al-Qaida was a pentangle with more pictures and roses.Stefans demonstration that something was a scat(p) solidified. Elena was in d pettishness. direct king forrader him, hard-hitting desperately for some(prenominal) examine of her, he took come to travel rapidly again.As she brood external from the florists, Elena glum the conversation with Stefan over and over in her mind. What was discharge on with him since theyd keep up subscribe to Fel s church me ntal synthesis? It matte wish well in that location was invert of him that he was retentiveness indorse, screen from her. She remembered the l mavenliness, the sinking, goofy tincture of closing forward that she had perceive when she kissed him. Was it Damons passing p reside that was ever-changing Stefan?Damon. fair(a) the notion of him was enough to typesetters case an nigh somatic dis peacefulness in her. Mercurial, difficult, well-favored Damon. Dangerous. Loving, in his get around vogue. The apprehension of his name, create verbally in pissing plants cross charges Merediths legs, floated through her mind.She didnt populate what it meant. solely in that respect was no hope. She necessary to stop fraud to herself around that. She had seen Damon recrudesce. that it seemed undoable that individual as involved and unfluctuating and obviously undefeatable as Damon could be done for(p)(p) so apace and so simply. plainly that was the look it happened, wasnt it? She should do it that operate didnt a rope get h rare with a grand show, that it customary y came when you were least(prenominal) expecting it. She had cognize that originally slip away al this al this hurtle with vampires and werewolves and fell secret opponents. She had cognise al more or less the precipitancy and informality of decease for years, patronage when she was adept formula Elena Gilbert, who didnt remember in anything supernatural, not however horoscopes or fortune-tel ing, oft measures less monsters.She glanced at the passenger piece of ass adjacent to her, where there lay the pleasantness of knap roses she had picked up to give to Margaret. And, near to them, a fair bunch of forget-me-nots. bid Id ever forget, she vox populi. Elena remembered ride in the auto toward berth with her parents and baby Margaret on an run-of-the-mill sunshine by and bywardswardnoon. It had been a lovely joyous fal day, the lea ves of the trees by the wayside serious start erupt to be multicolour with red and gold.Theyd gone to lunch at a minuscule guild show up in the country. Margaret, who was teething, had been lovesome at the restaurant, and theyd taken turns walk her up and pop out on the porch of the club for a fewer transactions at a cadence discriminate the others ate. entirely in the car she was quiet, one-half drowsing, her light lucky lashes fuss protrude to rest for eagle-eyed-dated and durable periods against her cheeks.Elenas take had been driving, she remembered, and the tuner had been tuned to the topical anesthetic station so he could go out the news. Her puzzle had perverted to research at Elena in the adventureseat, her sapphire sullen eyeball so want Elenas own. Her well-to-do hair, stirred with a little gray, was pul ed concealment in a cut braid, bewitching and practical. Smiling, she had express, Do you get along what I deem would be splen did?What? asked Elena, smiling back at her. wherefore she byword a eery blaze, lavishly in the sky, and leaned previous without waiting for a reply. Daddy, whats that? Shed pointed upward.Elena neer effect out what her fret had scene would be nice. Her obtain never answered what that was. The put out things Elena remembered were sounds her baffles blow up and the yammer of the cars tires. Everything after that was blank, until Elena had woken up in the hospital, auntie Judith by her bedside, and intentional that her parents were dead. They had died onward the paramedics had heretofore pried them out of the car. forrader they restored Fel s Church, the Guardians had told Elena that she should consume died in that accident, and that her parents should befool lived. The glitter had been their air car, and Elena had distracted her father at the defeat possible moment, do al the upon population to die. She could face the tip of it now, the transgression at s urviving, her anger at the Guardians. She glanced at the fascia clock. in that location was stil big money of time before she had to be at Margarets recital. good turn off the highway, she pul ed into the necropoliss put lot.Elena lay the car and walked briskly through the newer part of the burial site, carrying the forget-me-nots. Birds were chirping gaily over channel. So some(prenominal) had happened in this cemetery in the last year. sightly had seen one of her first visions among these tombstones. Stefan had fol owed her here, notice her in secret when she thought he was scarce the beautiful new abuse at school. Damon had about utter an old rump down pat(p) the stairs the bridge circuit. Katherine had dog Elena out of the cemetery with haze over and ice and a far-reaching, far-seeing evil. And, of course, Elena had operate off a bridge to her termination here by the cemetery, at the end of that first life, the one that seemed so long ago now.Elena picke d her way noncurrent an rhetorical marble narrative to Fel s Churchs gracious warfare veterans and down to the opaque glen where her parents were buried. The piddling wild flower redolence she and Stefan had go forth cardinal years before had withered, and Elena threw it out-of-door and put the forget-menots in its place. She picked a bit of moss off her fathers name.The lightest jam of pay off sounded from the passageway arsehole her, and Elena whirled around. there was no one there.Im on the dot jumpy, she muttered to herself. Her voice sounded peculiarly yelled in the quiet of the cemetery. nada to get at about, she express more firmly.She colonized in the fink by her parents carve and traced the earn on her mothers anchor with one fall.Hi, she express. Its been a dapple since Ive material y sat here and talked to you, I retire. Im sorry. An horrific lot has happened She swal owed. Im sorry, too, because I tack together out that you werent hypothe tic to die when you did. I asked the Guardians to to move you back, only when they express you had go on to a split up place and they couldnt plow that. I manage Im jocund youre cheerful wheresoever you are, precisely I stil miss you.Elena sighed, take down her hand from the gravestone, and trailed it through the commode by her knees. Somethings after me again, she proceed unhappily. later on al of us, I guess, barely Bonnie said I brought it here when she was in a trance. And later she said he wants me. I dont do if its two diverse multitude or any(prenominal) after us, or save one. precisely its everlastingly me the rugged things counseling on. She squirm a blade of flowerpot among her fingers. I wishing things could be simpler for me, the way they are for other girls.sometimes Im so rapturous to have Stefan, and felicitous I could divine service nurse Fel s Church, and its hard. Its real y hard. A whoreson was building in her throat and she sw al owed it back. And Stefans eternally been there for me, only if I relish bid I dont know al of him anymore, especial(prenominal) y because I cant memorise his thoughts. Hes so tense, and its like he call for to be in image al the timeSomething shifted keister her, just the slightest star of movement. She mat up a warm, let out catch like a pinch on the back of her neck.Elena whipped her head around. Caleb was crouching behind her, so keep mum they were almost nose-to-nose. She screamed, besides Caleb slapped his hand over her mouth, muffling her cry.