or at least we might find some kind of clue as to what it is and exactly what it's doing. And, hopeful y, how to reverse it."
Stefan was looking a little lost, his green eyes questioning. His arms were held out very slightly, as if he had been expecting her to embrace him and hadn't remembered to put them down when she hadn't. But for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on, Elena couldn't bring herself to hug him. Instead, she looked away and said, "Do you have any plastic bags or anything in the car we can use to move it al ?"
Chapter 24
Elena hung up her cel phone as they puled up to the boardinghouse in Stefan's car. "The nurse at the hospital says Caleb's stil unconscious," she said.
"Good," said Stefan. She gave him a reproving glance and he stared back at her in exasperation. "If he's unconscious," he explained, "it'l give us more of a chance to figure out what spel he's cast on us."
They'd fil ed three fat black trash bags with the papers, clippings, and books they'd found in the Smal woods'
garden shed. Elena had been afraid to disturb the pentagram with the roses and photographs around it on the shed floor, in case that would affect the spel somehow, but she'd taken a couple of pictures of it with her cel phone. Matt came out and picked up one of the bags. "Bringing over some garbage?"
"Something like that," Elena said grimly, and fil ed him in on what they'd discovered at the Smal wood house. Matt grimaced. "Wow. But maybe now we can final y do something about what's been happening."
"How come you're here so early?" Elena asked, fol owing him toward the house. "I thought you weren't coming onto guard duty until ten." Stefan trailed along behind her.
"I spent the night," Matt told her. "After Bonnie's name appeared, I didn't want to let her out of my sight."
"Bonnie's name appeared?" Elena whirled accusingly on Stefan. "Why didn't you tel me?"
Stefan shrugged uncomfortably. "I didn't know," he confessed hesitantly.
"Stefan, I told you to protect Meredith and Celia," she snapped. "You were supposed to be here. Even before Bonnie's name showed up, it was Meredith and Celia who were in danger. I was relying on you to watch over them."
Stefan glared back at her. "I'm not your lapdog, Elena," he said quietly. "I saw a mysterious threat that I thought bore investigation. I acted to protect you. And I was right. The danger was more immediate to you than the others. And now we have a chance to piece together the spel ."
Elena blinked at his tone but couldn't deny the truth in his words. "I'm sorry," she said contritely. "You're right. I'm glad we discovered Caleb's shed."
Matt opened the front door. They dumped the bags in the hal and went through to the kitchen, where Mrs. Flowers, Alaric, and Meredith were enjoying a breakfast of croissants, jam, fruit, and sausages.
"Celia's gone," Meredith said to Elena as soon as they entered the room. Her tone was casual y informative, but her usual y cool gray eyes were twinkling, and Elena shared a secret smile with her friend.
"Where'd she go?" Elena asked, equal y casual y, reaching for a croissant. It had been a long morning, and she was starving.
"University of Virginia," Alaric answered. "She's hoping to get some leads by doing research on curses and folk magic."
"We might have some more information now," Elena announced around a mouthful of deliciously buttery croissant. She explained what they had found in the shed.
"We brought al the papers and Caleb's notebooks with us. And here's what he'd laid out on the floor." She pul ed out her phone, loaded the picture, and handed it to Mrs. Flowers.
"My goodness," said the old woman. "This certainly looks like dark magic. I wonder what that child thought he was doing."
Stefan snorted. "He's no child, Mrs. Flowers. I strongly suspect he's a werewolf as wel as a dark magician."
Mrs. Flowers looked at him sternly. "He's found the wrong way of going about looking for his cousin, that's for certain. But this magic looks rather amateurish to me. If it has worked, it wil have been more by accident than design."
"If it's worked?" Meredith asked. "I think the evidence suggests that whatever he's done worked."
"Surely it would be too much of a coincidence for Caleb to be trying to cast spel s on us and for an unexplained curse to