Midnight

Elena sobbed to get her breath, even though she was al owing Stefan to help her now. He ran, holding Bonnie by one hand and Elena by the other. Damon was somewhere in front – scouting.

It can’t be far now, she kept thinking. Bonnie and I both saw the brightness – we both did. Just then, like a lantern put into a window, Elena saw it again.

It’s big, that’s the problem. I keep thinking we should reach it because I have the wrong idea of what size it is in my mind.

The closer we get, the bigger it gets.

And that’s good for us. We’l need a lot of Power. But we need to get there soon, or it could be al the Power in the universe and it won’t matter. We’l be too late.

Shinichi had indicated that they would be too late – but Shinichi had been born a liar. Still, surely just beyond that low branch was…

Oh, dear God, she thought. It’s a star ball.

Chapter 37

Then Meredith saw something that was not smoke or fire.

Just a glimpse of a door frame – and a tiny breath of cool air.

With this hope to sustain her, she scuttled straight for the door to the backyard, dragging Isobel behind her.

As she passed the threshold, she felt blessedly cold water somehow showering down onto her body. When she pul ed Isobel into the spray, the younger girl made the first voluntary sound she had during the entire journey: a wordless sob of thanks.

Matt’s hands were helping her along, were taking away the burden of Isobel. Meredith got up to her feet and staggered in a circle, then dropped to her knees. Her hair was on fire!

She was just recal ing her childhood rehearsal of stop, drop, and rol , when she felt the cold water turned on it. The hose water went up and down her body and she turned around, basking in the feeling of coolness, until she heard Matt’s voice say, "The flames are out. You’re good now."

"Thank you, Matt. Thank you."Her voice was hoarse.

"Hey, you were the one who had to go al the way to the bedrooms and back. Getting Mrs. Saitou out was pretty easy – there was the kitchen sink ful of water, so as soon as I cut her free from the kitchen chair we just got al wet and dashed outside."

Meredith smiled and looked around quickly. Isobel had become her responsibility now. To her relief, she saw that the girl was being hugged by her mother.

And al it had taken was the nonsense choice between a thing – however precious it was – and a life. Meredith gazed at the mother and daughter and was glad. She could have another stave made. But nothing could replace Isobel.

"Isobel said to give this to you,"Matt was saying.

Meredith turned toward him, the fiery light making the world crazy, and for one moment didn’t believe her eyes. Matt was holding the fighting stave out to her.

"She must have dragged it with her free hand – oh, Matt, and she was almost dead before we started…"

Matt said, "She’s stubborn. Like someone else I know."

Meredith wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that, but she knew one thing. "We’d al better get to the front yard. I doubt the volunteer fire department is going to come. Besides – Theo – "

"I’l get them moving. You scout the gate side,"Matt said.

Meredith plunged into the backyard, which was hideously il uminated by the house, now ful y engulfed in flames.

Fortunately, the side yard was not. Meredith flicked the gate open with the stave. Matt was right behind her, helping Mrs.

Saitou and Isobel along.

Meredith quickly ran by the flaming garage and then stopped. From behind her she heard a cry of horror. There was no time to try to soothe whoever had cried, no time to think.

The two fighting women were too busy to notice her – and Theo was in need of help. Inari was truly like a fiery Medusa, with her hair writhing around her in flaming, smoking snakes.

Only the crimson part burned, and it was that part that she was using like a whip, using one snake to wrest away the silver bul whip from Theo’s hand, and then another to wrap around Theo’s throat and choke her. Theo was desperately trying to pul the blazing noose from her neck.

Inari was laughing. "Are you suffering, petty witch? It wil al be over in seconds – for you and for your entire little town! The Last Midnight has final y come!"

Meredith glanced back at Matt – and that was al it took. He ran forward, passing her, al the way up to the space below the fighting women. Then he bent slightly, cupping his hands.

And then Meredith sprinted, putting everything she had left into the short run, leaving her just enough energy to leap and place one foot into Matt’s cupped hands, and then she felt herself soaring aloft, just within distance for the stave to slice cleanly through the snake of hair that was choking Theo.

After that Meredith was in free fal , with Matt trying to catch her from below. She landed more or less on top of him and they both saw what happened next.

Theo, who was bruised and bleeding, slapped out a part of her gown that was smoldering. She held out a hand for the silver bul whip and it flew to meet her outstretched fingers.

But Inari wasn’t attacking. She was waving her arms wildly, as if in terror, and then suddenly she shrieked: a sound so anguished that Meredith drew in her breath sharply. It was a death-scream.

Before their eyes she was turning back into Obaasan, into the shrunken, helpless, dol -like woman Matt and Meredith knew. But by the time this shriveled body hit the ground it was already stiff and dead, her expression one of such unrepentant malice that it was frightening.

It was Isobel and Mrs. Saitou then who came forward to stand over the body, sobbing with relief. Meredith looked at them and then up at Theo, who slowly floated to the ground.

"Thank you,"Theo said with the faintest of smiles. "You have saved me – yet again."

"But what do you think happened to her?"Matt asked. "And why didn’t Shinichi or Misao come to help her?"