Midnight

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 up. Elena noticed drops of blood scattered around. Then she saw it, tucked into Damon’s belt, black and crimson-tipped and sleek: Shinichi’s real tail.

Savagery fled…fast. Elena wanted to hide her head against Stefan’s shoulder but instead turned up her face for a kiss.

Stefan obliged.

Then Elena stepped back so that they formed a triangle around Shinichi.

"Don’t even think of attacking,"Damon said pleasantly.

Shinichi gave a weak shrug. "Attack you? Why bother? You’l have nothing to go back to, even if I die. The children are pre-programmed to kil . But" – with sudden vehemence – "I wish we’d never come to your damned little town at all – and I wish we’d never fol owed Her orders. I wish I’d never let Misao near Her! I wish we hadn’t – "He stopped speaking suddenly.

No, it was more than that, Elena thought. He froze, eyes wide open and staring. "Oh, no,"he whispered. "Oh, no, I didn’t mean that! I didn’t mean it! I have no regrets – "

Elena had the feeling of something coming at them at tremendous speed, so fast, in fact, that she just had time to open her mouth before it hit Shinichi. Whatever it was, it kil ed him cleanly and passed by without touching anyone else.

Shinichi fel facedown onto the dirt.

"Don’t bother,"Elena said softly, as Stefan reflexively moved toward the corpse. "He’s dead. He did it to himself."

"But how?"Stefan and Damon demanded in chorus.

"I’m not the expert,"Elena said. "Meredith is the expert on this. But she told me that kitsune could only be kil ed by destroying their star bal s, shooting them with a blessed bul et…or by the ‘Sin of Regret.’Meredith and I didn’t know what that meant back then – it was before we had even gone into the Dark Dimension. But I think we just now saw it in action."

"So you can’t be a kitsune and regret anything you’ve done?

That’s – harsh,"Stefan said.

"Not at all,"Damon said crisply. "Although, if it had operated for vampires, no doubt you would have been permanently dead when you woke up in the family vault."

"Earlier,"Stefan said expressionlessly. "I regreted striking you a mortal blow, even as I was dying. You’ve always said I feel too guilty, but that is one thing I would give my life to take back."

There was a silence that stretched and stretched. Damon was at the front of the group now, and no one but Bonnie could see his face.

Suddenly Elena grabbed Stefan’s hand. "We Stillhave a chance!"she told him. "Bonnie and I saw something bright that way! Let’s run!"He and Elena passed Damon running and he grabbed Bonnie’s hand too. "Like the wind, Bonnie!"