Phantom

A cold tendril of envy, the feeling of being the outsider looking in, the one who was left all alone, curled along Stefan’s spine even as tears of grief ran down his face. A phone rang, and Stefan snapped back to the present. Elena glanced at her cel and then answered, "Hi, Aunt Judith." She paused. "At the boardinghouse with everybody. We picked up Alaric and his friend from the train." Another pause and she grimaced. "I’m sorry, I forgot. Yes, I wil . In just a few minutes, al right? Okay. Bye."

She hung up and got to her feet. "Apparently at some point I promised Aunt Judith I would be home for dinner tonight. Robert’s getting out the fondue set and Margaret wants me to show her how to dip bread in cheese." She rol ed her eyes, but Stefan wasn’t fooled. He could see how delighted Elena was to have her baby sister idolizing her again.

Elena went on, frowning, "I’m not sure I’l be able to get out again tonight, but someone needs to be with Meredith at al times. Can you stay here tonight, Meredith, instead of at home?"

Meredith nodded slowly, her long legs drawn up under her on the couch. She looked tired and apprehensive, despite her earlier bravado. Elena touched her hand in farewel , and Meredith smiled at her. "I’m sure your minions wil take good care of me, Queen Elena," she said lightly.

"I’d expect nothing less," Elena answered in the same tone, turning her smile on the rest of the room. Stefan got to his feet. "I’l walk you home," he said. Matt rose, too. "I can drive you," he offered, and Stefan was surprised to find that he had to suppress the urge to shove Matt back into his seat. Stefan would take care of Elena. She was his responsibility.

"No, stay here, both of you," Elena said firmly. "It’s only a few blocks, and it’s stil broad daylight out. You look after Meredith."

Stefan settled back in his chair, eyeing Matt. With a wave, Elena was gone, and Stefan stretched out his senses to fol ow her as far as he could, pushing his Power to sense whether anything dangerous, anything at al , lurked nearby. His Powers weren’t strong enough, though, to reach al the way to Elena’s house. He curled his hands into tight, frustrated fists. He had been so much more powerful when he al owed himself to drink human blood. Meredith was watching him, gray eyes sympathetic.

"She’l be okay," she said. "You can’t watch her al the time."

But I can try, thought Stefan.

When Elena strol ed up her walk, Caleb was clipping the glossy green leaves of the flowering camel ia bushes in front of the house.

"Hi," she said, surprised. "Have you been here al day?"

He stopped trimming and wiped the sweat off his forehead. With his blond hair and healthy tan, he looked like a California surfer transplanted to a Virginia lawn. Elena thought Caleb seemed just right on a perfect summer day like this one, a lawn mower humming in the distance somewhere, the sky blue and high above them.

"Sure," he said cheerful y. "Lots to do. It looks good, right?"

"It real y does," she said. And it did. The grass was mowed, the hedges were perfectly trimmed, and he had set out some daisies in the flower beds near the house.

"What’ve you been up to today?" Caleb asked.

"Nothing as energetic as this," Elena said, suppressing the memory of the desperate race to save Celia. "My friends and I just picked someone up at the train station and hung out inside for the rest of the day. I hope the weather holds, though. We want to take a picnic up to Hot Springs tomorrow."

"Sounds like fun," Caleb said agreeably. Elena was tempted for a moment to invite him along. Despite Stefan’s reservations, he seemed like a nice guy, and he probably didn’t know many people in town. Maybe Bonnie would hit it off with him. He was pretty cute, after al . And Bonnie hadn’t real y been interested in anyone for a while. Anyone other than Damon, a secret little voice said in the back of her mind.

But of course she couldn’t invite Caleb. What was she thinking? She and her friends couldn’t have outsiders around while they talked about what supernatural entity had it in for them now.

A little pang of longing hit her. Would she ever be a girl who could have a picnic and swim and flirt and be able to talk to anyone she liked, because she had no dark secrets to conceal?

"Aren’t you exhausted?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

She thought she saw a flicker of disappointment in his eyes. Had he realized she was thinking of inviting him along on the picnic and then changed her mind? But he answered readily enough. "Oh, your aunt ran me out a couple of glasses of lemonade, and I had a sandwich with your sister at lunchtime." He grinned. "She’s a cutie. And an excel ent conversationalist. She told me al about tigers."

"She talked to you?" Elena said with surprise. "She’s usual y real y shy around new people. She wouldn’t talk to my boyfriend, Stefan, until he’d been around for months."

"Oh, wel ," he said, and shrugged. "Once I showed her a couple of magic tricks, she was so fascinated she forgot to be shy. She’s going to be a master magician by the time she starts first grade. She’s a natural."

"Real y?" said Elena. She felt a sharp shift in her stomach, a sense of loss. She had missed so much of her little sister’s life. She’d noticed at breakfast that she looked and sounded older. It was like Margaret had grown into a different person without her. Elena gave herself a mental shake: She needed to stop being such a whiner. She was unbelievably lucky just to be here now.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "Look, I taught her this." He held out a tanned fist, turned it over, and opened his hand to reveal a camel ia blossom, waxy and white, closed his hand, then opened it again to reveal a tightly furled bud.