refreshed the writing for him. This time, instead of jumping, he simply ran a hand over his eyes and then slowly peeked out again.
"Hey, Mr. Spook-chaser,"said Celia. "Are you al right?"
"I don't know,"Alaric admitted. He passed his hand over his eyes again, but Celia was coming and Elena didn't breathe on the window.
"I thought I saw a - a message to send copies of the pictures of these jars to Meredith."
Celia raised an eyebrow. "Who is Meredith?"
"Oh. She - she's one of my former students. I suppose this would interest her."He looked down at the camcorder.
"Bones and urns?"
"Well, you were interested in them quite young, if your reputation is correct."
"Oh, yes. I loved to watch a dead bird decay, or find bones and try to figure out what animal they were from,"Celia said, dimpling again. "From the age of six. But I wasn't like most girls."
"Well - neither is Meredith,"Alaric said.
Elena and Bonnie were eyeing each other seriously now.
Alaric had implied that Meredith was special, but he hadn't said it, and he hadn't mentioned their engagement to be engaged.
Celia came closer. "Are you going to send her the pictures?"
Alaric laughed. "Well, al this atmosphere and everything - I don't know. It might just have been my imagination."
Celia turned away just as she reached him and Elena blew once more across the message. Alaric threw his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"I don't suppose the Island of Doom has satel ite coverage,"he said helplessly.
"Nope,"Celia said. "But the ferry wil be back in a day, and you can send pictures then - if you're real y going to do it."
"I think I'd better do it,"Alaric said. Elena and Bonnie were both glaring at him, one from each side.
But that was when Elena's eyelids started to droop. Oh, Bonnie, I'm sorry. I wanted to talk to you after this, and make sure you're okay. But I'm falling...I can't...
She managed to pry her lids open. Bonnie was in a fetal position, fast asleep.
Be careful, Elena whispered, not even sure who she was whispering it to. And as she floated away, she was aware of Celia and the way Alaric was talking to this beautiful, accomplished woman only a year or so older than he was.
She felt a distinct fear for Meredith, on top of everything else.
Chapter 14
The next morning Elena noticed that Meredith stil looked pale and languid, and that her eyes slid away if Stefan happened to glance at her. But this was a time of crisis, and as soon as the breakfast dishes were washed, Elena cal ed a meeting in the parlor. There she and Stefan explained what Meredith had missed during the visit from the sheriffs.
Meredith smiled wanly when Elena told how Stefan had banished them like stray dogs.
Then Elena told the story of her out-of-body experience. It proved one thing, at least, that Bonnie was alive and relatively well. Meredith bit her lip when Mrs. Flowers said this, for it only made her want to go and get Bonnie out of the Dark Dimension personal y.
But on the other hand, Meredith wanted to stay and wait for Alaric's photographs. If that would save Fel 's Church...
No one at the boardinghouse could question what had happened on the Island of Doom. It was happening here, on the other side of the world. Already a couple of parents in Fel 's Church had had their children taken away by the Virginia Department of Child Protective Services.
Punishments and retaliations had begun. How much longer would it be before Shinichi and Misao turned al the children into lethal weapons - or let loose those already turned? How long before some hysterical parent kil ed a kid?
The group sitting in the parlor discussed plans and methods.
In the end, they decided to make jars identical to those Elena and Bonnie had seen, and prayed that they could reproduce the writing. These jars, they were sure, were the means by which Shinichi and Misao were original y sealed off from the rest of the Earth.
Therefore Shinichi and Misao had once fit into the rather cramped accommodations of the jars. But what did Elena's group have now that could lure them back inside?
Power, they decided. Only an amount of Power so great that it was irresistible to the kitsune twins. That was why the priestess had tried to lure them back with her own blood.
Now...it meant either the liquid in a ful star bal ...or blood from an extraordinarily powerful vampire. Or two vampires.
Or