Bonnie - so smal and light - and at the same time threw a backward glance at Stefan. He was wearing a slight frown of concentration now, but he was not only not overwhelmed with pain, he was pressing forward the attack.
Even though Shinichi's head was on fire. The bril iant crimson tips of his black hair had burst into flames, as if nothing else would express his enmity and his certainty of winning. He was crowning himself with a flaming garland, a hel ish halo.
Elena's anger at that turned into chil s down her spine as she watched something most people never lived to analyze: two vampires attacking together, perfectly in sync. There was the elemental savagery in it of a pair of raptors or wolves, but there was also the awesome beauty of two creatures working as a single, unified body. The distance in Stefan's and Damon's expressions said that this was a fight to the death. The occasional frown from Stefan or vicious smile from Damon meant that Shinichi was sending his searing dark Power through one or the other of them. But these weren't weak humans Shinichi was playing with now. They were both vampires with bodies that healed almost instantly - and vampires who had both fed recently - from her -
Elena. Her extraordinary blood was feuling them now.
So I'm already a part of this, Elena thought. I'm helping them right now. That would have to satisfy the savagery this no-holds-barred fight elicited in her. To ruin the perfect synchronicity with which the two vampires were handling Shinichi would be a crime, especial y when Bonnie was Stilllimp in her arms.
As humans, we're both liabilities, she thought. And Damon wouldn't hesitate to tel me so, even if al I wanted was to get in one single stroke.
Bonnie, come on, Bonnie, she thought. Hold on to me.
We're getting farther away. She picked up the smal er girl under the armpits and dragged her. She backed up into the olive dimness that stretched in al directions. When she tripped over a root and accidental y sat down, she decided that she'd gone far enough, and maneuvered Bonnie into her lap.
Then she cupped her hands around Bonnie's little heart-shaped face and she thought of the most soothing things she could imagine. A cool plunge at Warm Springs back home.
A hot bath at Lady Ulma's and then a four-handed massage, lying comfortably on a drying couch with the scent of floral incense rising around her. A cuddle with Saber in Mrs.
Flowers's informal den. The decadence of sleeping late and waking up in her own bed - with her own mother and father and sister in the house.
As Elena thought of this last, she couldn't help giving a tiny gasp, and a teardrop fel onto Bonnie's forehead. Bonnie's eyelashes fluttered.
"Now, don't you be sad,"she whispered. "Elena?"
"I've got you, and nobody's going to hurt you again. Do you Stillfeel bad?"
"A little. But I could hear you, in my mind, and it made me feel better. I want a long bath and a pizza. And to hold baby Adara. She can almost talk, you know. Elena - you're not listening to me!"
Elena wasn't. She was watching the denouement of the fight between Stefan and Damon and Shinichi. The vampires had the kitsune down now and were squabbling over him like a couple of fledglings over a particularly tasty worm. Or maybe like a pair of baby dragons - Elena wasn't sure if birds hissed at each other.
"Oh, no - yuck!"Bonnie saw what Elena was watching and col apsed, hiding her head against Elena's shoulder. Okay, Elena thought. I get it. There's no savagery at allin you, is there, Bonnie? Mischief, but nothing like bloodlust. And that's good.
Even as she thought this, Bonnie abruptly sat up straight, bumping Elena's chin, and pointing into the distance.
"Wait!"she cried. "Do you see that?"
That was a very bright light, which flared brighter as each vampire found a place to his liking on Shinichi's body and bit simultaneously.
"Stay here,"Elena said, a little thickly, because when Bonnie had bumped her chin she'd accidental y bitten her tongue.
She ran back to the two vampires and knocked them as hard as she could over the heads. She had to get their attention before they got completely locked into feeding mode.
Not surprisingly, Stefan detached first, and then helped her to pul Damon off his defeated enemy.
Damon snarled and paced, never taking his eyes off Shinichi as the beaten kitsune slowly sat