Phantom

Deep within the ash, his fingers twitched.

Chapter 5

"Are you excited for Alaric to arrive tomorrow?" Matt asked. "He’s bringing his researcher friend Celia, right?"

Meredith kicked him in the chest.

"Oof!" Matt staggered backward, knocked breathless despite the protective vest he had on. Meredith fol owed up with a roundhouse kick to Matt’s side, and he fel to his knees, barely managing to raise his hands and block a straight punch to his face.

"Ow!" he said. "Meredith, time-out, okay?"

Meredith dropped into a graceful tiger stance, her back leg supporting her weight while her front foot rested lightly on her toes. Her face was calm, her eyes cool and watchful. She looked ready to pounce if Matt showed any sign of sudden movement.

When he’d arrived to spar with Meredith – to help her keep her hunter-slayer skil s in top-notch shape – Matt had wondered why she had handed him a helmet, mouth guard, gloves, shin guards, and vest, while she wore only sleek black workout clothes.

Now he knew. He hadn’t even come close to hitting her, while she’d pummeled him mercilessly. Matt eased a hand up under the vest and rubbed rueful y at his side. He hoped he hadn’t cracked a rib.

"Ready to go again?" Meredith said, her eyebrows raised in chal enge.

"Please, no, Meredith," Matt said, raising his hands in surrender. "Let’s take a break. It feels like you’ve been punching me for hours."

Meredith walked over to the smal fridge in the corner of her family’s rec room and tossed Matt a bottle of water, then sank down next to him on the mat. "Sorry. I guess I got carried away. I’ve never sparred with a friend before."

Looking around as he took a long, cool drink, Matt shook his head. "I don’t know how you managed to keep this place secret for so long." The basement room had been converted into a perfect place to train: throwing stars, knives, swords, and staves of various kinds were mounted on the wal s; a punching bag hung in one corner, while a padded dummy leaned in another. The floor was lined with mats, and one wal was completely mirrored. In the middle of the opposite wal hung the fighting stave: a special weapon for battling the supernatural that had been handed down through generations of Meredith’s family. It was deadly but elegant-looking, the hilt covered with jewels, the ends spiked with silver, wood, and white ash, and the needles steeped in poison. Matt eyed it warily.

"Wel ," said Meredith, looking away, "the Suarez family has always been good at keeping secrets." She began to move through a tae kwon do form: back stance, double fist block, left front stance, reverse middle punch. She was graceful as a slim black cat in her workout gear. After a moment, Matt capped his water bottle, climbed to his feet, and began to mirror her movements. Left double front kick, left inside block, double-handed punch. He knew he was half a beat behind and felt shambling and awkward next to her, but frowned and concentrated. He’d always been a good athlete. He could do this, too.

"Besides, it’s not like I was bringing my prom dates down here," Meredith offered after a cycle, half smiling. "It wasn’t that hard to hide." She watched Matt in the mirror. "No, block low with your left hand and high with your right hand, like this." She showed him again, and he shadowed her movements.

"Okay, yeah," he said, only half concentrating on his words now, focused on the positions. "But you could have told us. We’re your best friends." He moved his left foot forward and mimicked Meredith’s backward elbow blow.

"At least, you could have told us after the whole thing with Klaus and Katherine," he amended. "Before that, we would have thought you were crazy."

Meredith shrugged and dropped her hands, and Matt fol owed before he realized that the gestures weren’t part of the tae kwon do form.

Now they stood side by side, staring at each other in the mirror. Meredith’s cool and elegant face looked pale and pinched. "I was brought up to keep my heritage as a hunterslayer a deep, dark secret," she said. "Tel ing anybody wasn’t something I could consider. Even Alaric doesn’t know."

Matt turned away from Meredith’s mirror image to gape at the real girl. Alaric and Meredith were practical y engaged. Matt had never been that serious with anyone –

the girl he’d come closest to loving was Elena, and obviously that hadn’t worked out – but he’d sort of figured that, if you committed your heart to somebody, you told them everything.

"Isn’t Alaric a paranormal researcher? Don’t you think he would understand?"

Frowning, Meredith shrugged again. "Probably," she said, sounding irritated and dismissive, "but I don’t want to be something for him to study or research, any more than I want him to freak out. But since you and the others know, I’l have to tel him."

"Hmm." Matt rubbed his aching side again. "Is that why you’re pounding on me so aggressively? Because you’re worried about tel ing him?"

Meredith met his eyes. The lines of her face were stil tense, but a mischievous glimmer shone in her eyes.

"Aggressive?" she asked sweetly, fal ing back into the tiger stance. Matt felt an answering smile tug at the corners of his mouth. "You haven’t seen anything yet."

Elena surveyed the restaurant Judith had picked with a kind of bemused horror. Beeping video game machines vied for attention with old-fashioned arcade games like Whac-AMole and Skee-Bal . Bouquets of brightly colored bal oons bobbed over every table, and a cacophony of song rose from various corners as singing waiters delivered pizza after pizza. What seemed like hundreds of children ran loose across the floor, shrieking and laughing. Stefan had walked her to the restaurant, but, eyeing the neon paint job with alarm, he’d declined to come in.