The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 30

bland watched Mrs. Flowers go over Sheriff Mossbergs badge, guardianship it lightly in integrity submit and running her fingers over it with the early(a).The badge came from Rebecca, Sheriff Mossbergs niece. It had take careed merely a coincidence when savorless had more(prenominal) or less run into her earlier that daytime. thus hed discover that she was moiling a mans shirt as a dress. The shirt had been familiar a Ridgemont sheriffs shirt.Then he had seen the badge legato attached to it. You could count on a treat of things ab erupt Sheriff Mossberg, plainly you couldnt imagine him losing his badge. bland had forgotten entirely(prenominal) sense of valiancy and snatched at the lilli rollian metal screen let come to the fore away front Rebecca could stop him. Hed had a excited quality in his stomach w herefore, and it had take inly gotten worse since. Mrs. Flowerss expression was doing nil to relieve him.It wasnt in direct contact with his ski n, she verbalize loosely, so the images I occupy be hazy. nonwithstanding oh, my darling languor she raise shadowed eyes to his I am afraid. She shivered, sitting at her kitchen table chair, where 2 mugs of hot spiced draw sat untouched. prostrate had to clear his throat and touch the scalding milk to his lips. You speak up we consider to go verboten to look.We must, express Mrs. Flowers. She shook her head, with its soft, wispy snow- clean-living curls, sadly. Dear Ma ma is most insistent, and I flush toilet feel it a uniform a abundant disturbance in this arti fact.mat matte up the faintest shade of conceit tingeing his fear for having secured the artifact and accordingly he purview, yeah, robbing badges from the shirts of twelve-year-old girls is au whereforetic solelyy darkhing to be proud of.Mrs. Flowerss join came from the kitchen. Youd best ramble on righteous ab come to the fore(prenominal) shirts and sweaters as healthy as a pair of these. She emerged side ways through the kitchen room access, retentivity several dogged coats, apparently from the imperativeness in front of the kitchen door, and several pairs of tillage g passionatenesss. lethargy de break awayed up to help her with the armfuls of coats and then went into a coughing fit as the olfactory perception of mothb eachs and of well-nighthing else, something spicy surrounded him.why do I feel the exchangeable Christmas? he utter, forced to cough mingled with each few words.Oh, now that would be Great-Aunt Morwens clove preservation recipe, Mrs. Flowers replied. whatever of these coats are from Mothers time. plane sweard her. entirely its boot out remote warm out. Why should we wear coats at either?For protection, dear vapid, for protection These habit form spells woven into the material to vindication us from vicious. nevertheless the gardening gloves? dull bespeak doubtfully.Even the gloves, Mrs. Flowers said firmly. She paused a nd then said in a quiet juncture, And wed come a weaken realize some flashlights, phlegm dear, because this is something were expiry to ingest to do in the darkness.Youre kiddingNo, sadly, I am not. And we should go some pickle to tie ourselves together. Under no pot must we enter the thicket of the obsolescent Wood tonight.An hour later, Matt was unbosom thinking. He hadnt had whatsoever appetite for Mrs. Flowerss substantive Braised Eggplant au Fromage dinner, and the wheels in his brain reasonable wouldnt stop turning.I wonder if this is how Elena feels, he thought, when shes putting together Plans A, B, and C. I wonder if she ever feels this goosy doing it.He felt a alter well-nigh his heart, and for the leash-hundred-thousandth time since hed left her and Damon, he wondered if hed d champion the right thing.It had to be right, he told himself. It contuse the worst, and thats the proof of it. Things that unfeignedly, re solelyy hurt are the right thing to do . yet I just wanted to say honourable-bye to her. further if youd said satisfactory-bye, youd neer have left. Face it, moron, as faraway as Elena goes youre the worlds biggest loser. Ever since she arrange a boyfri repeal she liked better than you, youve been operative like you were Meredith and seemly to help her lapse him and keep away The Bad Guy. peradventure you should get you all(a) junior-grade twinned T-shirts saying I am a dog. I resolve the Princess Ele SMACKMatt leaped up, and landed crouching, which was more painful than it looked in movies.Rattle-SmickIt was the loose shutter on the other side of the room. That first bang had really been a slam, though. The exterior of the boardinghouse was in pretty bad shape, and the wooden shutters in that respect somemultiplication suddenly came free of their wintertime nails.But was it really just a coincidence? Matt thought, as curtly as his heart had stopped galloping. In this boardinghouse where Stefan had spent so oftentimes time? Maybe somehow on that point were appease remnants of his spirit around, tuned to what people thought within these halls. If so, Matt had just been give a solid whack to the solar plexus, from the way he felt.Sorry, bud, he thought, most saying it out loud. I didnt concoct to trash your girl. Shes nether a lot of pressure.Trash his girl?Trash Elena?Hell, hed be the first person to knock out anybody who trashed Elena. Provided Stefan didnt use vampire tricks to get in front of himAnd what was it Elena constantly said? You cant be too prepared. You cant have too umteen subplans because, just as sure as God made a pestering shell around a peanut, your major(ip) plan was red ink to have some flaws.That was why Elena too worked with as legion(predicate) people as possible. So what if C and D workers never inevitable to get involved. They were on that point if they were needed.Thinking this, and with his head feeling a lot clearer than it had since he had exchange the Prius and given Stefans m sensationy to h acest and Meredith for sheet fare plus, Matt went to work.And then we took a walk around the res publica, and see the orchard apple tree orchard, and the orange orchard, and the cherry orchard, middling told Elena, who was fable d suffer, face littler and disproofless, in her four-poster bed, which had been hung with dusty-gold virtuous panels, right now held plump for by heavy tassels in various dark glasses of gold.Bonnie was sitting comfortably in a gold upholstered chair that had been pinched to the bed. She had her small reave feet up on the sheets.Elena was not being a good patient. She wanted to get up, she insisted. She wanted to be able to walk around. That would do her more good than all the oatmeal and steak and milk and five-times-a-day visits from Dr. Meggar, who had come to live at the estate.She knew what they were all really afraid of, though. Bonnie had blurted it all out in angiotensin-converti ng enzyme long sobbing, keening wail one night when the small(a) redhead had been on duty beside her.Y-you screamed and all the v-vampires heard it, and Sage just picked up Meredith and me like cardinal kittens, one under each arm, and he ran to where the screaming was. But b-by then so numerous people had gotten to you first You were unconscious but so was Damon, and somebody said, They-theyve been attacked and I th-think theyre dead And e genuinely-b-body was s-saying, shout out the G-Guardians And I fainted, a little.Shhh, Elena had said genial and cannily. Have some Black sorcerous to form it feel better.Bonnie had had some. And some more. And then shed kaput(p) on with the story. But Sage mustve retiren something because he said, Here, Im a doctor, and Im going to examine them. And you would really believe him, the way he said itAnd then he looked at some(prenominal) of you, and I guess he knew right away what happened, because he said, Fetch a charabanc I need to take them t-to Dr. Meggar, my colleague. And the gentle char char char muliebrity Fazina herself came and said that they could have one of her double-deckers, and just send it back wh-whenever. Shes sooooo rich And then, we got you cardinal out the back way because there were were some bastards who said, let them die. They were real demons, whiten like snow, called Snow Women. And then, then, we were just in the carriage and, oh my God Elena Elena, you died You stopped live twice And Sage and Meredith just unploughed doing CPR on you. And I I prayed so h-h-hard.Elena, fully into the story by now, had cuddled her, but Bonnies tears kept coming back.And we knocked at Dr. Meggars as if we were going to break-dance the door in and and someone told him and he examined her and said, She needs a transfusion. And I said, borrow my parentage. Because remember in school when we both gave blood to Jody Wright and we were practically the only ones who could do it because we were the same kind? And then Dr. Meggar got ii tables ready like that Bonnie had snapped her fingers and I was so scared I could hardly hold still for the needle, but I did. I did, somehow And they gave you some of my blood. And, meanwhile, you come what Meredith did? She let Damon bite her. She really did. And Dr. Meggar move the carriage back to the house to ask for servants who wanted a bonus because th-thats what its called here and the carriage came back full. And I dont have how many Damon bit, but it was a lot Dr. Meggar said it was the best medicine. And Meredith and Damon and all of us take to tasked and we persuade Dr. Meggar to come here, I mean to live, and gentlewoman Ulma is going to turn that whole structure he was living in into a hospital for the poor people. And ever by and by that weve just been trying to get you well. Damon was alright the next morning. And Lady Ulma and Lucen and he I mean it was their idea but he did it, sent this pearl to Lady Fazina it was one that her set about had never be a client rich enough to buy, because its so big, like a good smattering in size but irregular, that representation with twists and turns, and a sheen like silver. They put it on a thick cosmic string and sent it to her.Bonnies eyes had filled again. Because she relieve both you and Damon. Her carriage saved your lives. Bonnie had leaned forward to whisper, And Meredith told me its a secret, but not from you that being bitten isnt that bad. There And Bonnie, like the kitten she was, had yawned and stretched. I would have been bitten next, shed said just about wistfully, and quickly added, but you needed my blood. mankind blood, but mine especially. I guess they know all about blood types here because they can taste and timbre the differences. Then she gave a little jump and said, Do you want to look at the fox key half? We were so sure it was all over and wed never ever find it, but when Meredith went in the bedroom to get bitte n and I call off that was all they did Damon gave it to her and asked her to keep it. So she did and she took good care of it and its in a little chest Lucen made out of something that looks like plastic but its not.Elena had admired the little crescent, but other than that there was nothing to do in bed but talk and read classical books or encyclopedias from Earth. They wouldnt til now let her and Damon rest in the same room.Elena knew why. They were afraid she wouldnt just talk to Damon. They were afraid that she would get near to him and smell his exotic familiar smell, made up of Italian bergamot, mandarin, and cardamom, and that she would look up into his nasty eyes that could hold universes inside the pupils, and that her knees would go weak and shed wake up a vampire.They didnt know anything She and Damon had been safely exchanging blood for weeks before the crisis. If there was nothing to drive him out of sanity again, the way the pain had before, he would conduct himse lf like a hone gentleman.Hm, Bonnie said, upon hearing this protest, pushing a tiny throw pillow around with toenails that had been painted silver. I maybe wouldnt enunciate them that youve been exchanging blood so many times from the beginning. It might commence them go Aha or something. You know, read something into it.Theres nothing to read into. Im here to collect my beloved Damon and Stefan is just back up me.Bonnie looked at her with her brows knitted and her communicate pursed, but didnt venture a word.Bonnie?Um-hm?Did I just say what I thought I said?Um-hm.Elena, with one motion, gathered an armful of pillows and deposited them on her face. Could you please prove chef that I want another steak and a big glass of milk? she requested in a muffled voice from under the pillows. Im not well.Matt had a new junk car. He was always able to get his hands on one when he really needed it. And now he was driving, in fits and starts, to Obaasans house.Mrs. Saitous house, he correcte d himself hastily. He didnt want to rate on unfamiliar cultural customs, not when he was asking for a favor.The door at the Saitous was uncloudeded by a woman Matt had never seen before. She was an spellbinding woman, dressed precise dramatically in a wide scarlet frame or maybe in genuinely wide scarlet pants she stood with her feet so far apart that it was hard to tell. She wore a white blouse. Her face was smash two swaths of straight black hair and a small, neater swath of bangs that came to her eyebrows.But the most striking thing of all about her was that she was property a long curved sword, pointed instantaneously at Matt.H-hi, Matt said, when the door swung open to reveal this apparition.This is a good house, the woman replied. This is not a house of evil spirits.I never thought it was, Matt said, retreating as the woman advanced. Honest.The woman shut her eyes, seemed to be searching for something in her own learning ability. Then, abruptly, she lowered the swor d. You speak the truth. You mean no harm. Please come in. convey you, Matt said. Hed never been so happy to have an older woman accept him.Orime, came a thin, feeble voice from upstairs. Is that one of the children?Yes, Hahawe, called the woman that Matt couldnt help thinking of as the woman with the sword.Send him up, why dont you?Of course, Hahawe.Ha ha I mean Hahawe? Matt said, turning a nervous joke into a desperate sentence as the sword swung by his midriff again. not Obaasan?The sword-woman smiled for the first time. Obaasan means grandmother. Hahawe is one of the ways to say mother. But mother wont mind at all if you call her Obaasan its a friendly greeting for a woman of her age.Okay, Matt said, trying his best to seem like an all-around friendly guy.Mrs. Saitou gestured him up the stairs and he peeped into several cortege before he found one with a large futon in the exact middle of a completely bare floor, and in it a woman who seemed so tiny and doll-like as not to be real.Her hair was just as soft and black as the sword-womans complicatestairs. It was put up or arranged somehow so that it lay around her like a halo as she lay on the bed. But the dark lashes on the blanch cheeks were shut and Matt wondered if she had fallen into one of the sudden slumbers of the elderly.But then rather abruptly, the doll-like lady opened her eyes and smiled. Why, its Masato-chan she said, spirit at Matt.Bad beginning. If she didnt redden write out that a blond guy wasnt her Japanese friend from about sixty old age agoBut then she was laughing, with her small hands in front of her mouth. I know, I know, she said. Youre not Masato. He became a banker, very rich. genuinely thick. Especially in the head and the stomach.She smiled at him again. Sit calibrate, please. You can call me Obaasan if you want, or Orime. My daughter was named for me. But life has been hard for her, as it was for me. universe a shrine maiden and a samuraiit takes discipline and su ch(prenominal) work. And my Orime did so welluntil we came here. We were looking for a town that would be peaceful and quiet. Instead, Isobel foundJim. And Jim wasuntrue.Matts throat with child(p) with the desire to defend his friend, but what defense could there be? Jim had spent one night with Caroline at Carolines military press invitation. And he had become possessed and had brought that ownership to his girlfriend Isobel, who had pierced her body monstrously among other things.Weve got to get them, Matt found himself saying earnestly. The kitsune who started it all who started it with Caroline. Shinichi and his sister Misao.Kitsune. Obaasan was tearful her head. Yes, I said there would be one involved from the very beginning. permit me see I ratifyed some charms and amulets for your friends.And some bullets. I just sift of filled my pockets, Matt said, embarrassed, as he spilled out a jumble of unalike calibers on the edge of her futon cover. I even found some ingat herings on the weathervane about getting rid of them.Yes, youve been very thorough. Good. Obaasan looked at the hard copies hed printed of the prayers. Matt squirmed, know that he had only been running down Merediths To-Do list, and that the credit really belonged to her.Ill bless the bullets first and then Ill write out more amulets, she said. Put the amulets wherever you need protection most. And, well, I suppose you know what to do with the bullets.Yes, maam Matt fumbled in his pockets for the last few, put them into Obaasans outstretched hands. Then she chanted a long, elaborate prayer holding her tiny hands out over the bullets. Matt didnt find the conjury frightening, but he knew that as a psychic he was a dud, and that Bonnie had probably seen and heard things he couldnt.Should I aim for any particular part of them? Matt asked, watching the old woman and trying to follow along on his own copy of the prayers.No, any part of the body or head will do. If you take out a tail, youll make it weaker, but youll enrage it, as well. Obaasan paused and coughed, a small dry old-lady cough. Before Matt could offer to run downstairs and get her a drink, Mrs. Saitou entered the room with a tray and three cups of tea in little bowls.Thank you for waiting, she said politely as she knelt fluidly to serve them. Matt found with the first sip that the steaming green tea was much better than hed expected from his few experiences at restaurants.And then there was silence. Mrs. Saitou sat looking at the teacup, Obaasan lay looking white and shrunken under the futon cover, and Matt felt a storm of words construct up in his own throat.Finally, even though good sense was counsel him not to speak, he burst out, God, Im so sorry about Isobel, Mrs. Saitou She doesnt deserve any of this I just wanted you to know that I Im just so sorry, and Im going to get the kitsune whos at the bottom of it. I promise you, Ill get himKitsune? Mrs. Saitou said sharply, arrant(a) at him as if hed gone mad. Obaasan looked on in pity from her pillow. Then, without waiting to gather up the tea things, Mrs. Saitou jumped up and ran out of the room.Matt was left speechless. I I Obaasan spoke from her pillow. Dont be too distressed, preteen man. My daughter, although a priestess, is very modern in her outlook. She would probably tell you that kitsune dont even exist.Even after I mean how does she think Isobel ?She thinks that there are evil influences in this town, but of the ordinary, man kind. She thinks Isobel did what she did because of the stress she was under, trying to be a good student, a good priestess, a good samurai.You mean, like, Mrs. Saitou feels guilty?She blames Isobels father for much of it. He is a salaryman back in Japan. Obaasan paused. I dont know why I have told you all this.Im sorry, Matt said hastily. I wasnt trying to snoop.No, but you care about other people. I wish Isobel had had a boy like you instead of her daughter.Matt thought of the haple ss figure hed seen at the hospital. Most of Isobels scars would end up invisible under her turn presuming she learned to speak again. Bravely, he said, Well, Im still up for grabs.Obaasan smiled faintly at him, then put her head back down on the pillow no, it was a wooden headrest, Matt realized. It didnt look very comfortable. Its a great pity when there has to be strife between a human family and the kitsune, she said. Because there are rumors that one of our ancestors took a kitsune married woman.Say what?Obaasan laughed, again behind covert fists. Mukashi-mukashi, or as you say, long ago in the times of legend, a great Shogun became angy at all the kitsune on his estate for the mischief they made. For many long years they were up to all sorts of pranks, but when he suspected them of ruining the crops in the fields, that was it. He roused all(prenominal) man and woman in his household, and told them to take sticks and arrows and rocks and hoes and brooms and flush out all t he foxes that had dens on his estate, even the ones between the bean plant and the roof. He was going to have every single fox killed without mercy. But the night before he did this, he had a dream in which a well-favoured woman came and said she was responsible for all the foxes on the estate. And, she said, while it is true that we make mischief, we repay you by eating the rats and mice and insects that really spoil the crops. Wont you agree to take your petulance out just on me and accomplish me alone instead of all the foxes? I will come at tick to hear your answer.And she kept her word, this most lovely of kitsune, arriving at dawn with twelve scenic maidens as attendants, but she outshone all of them just as the moon outshines a star. The Shogun could not bring himself to kill her, and in fact asked for her hand in marriage, and married her twelve attendants to his twelve most loyal retainers as well. And it is said that she was always a closelipped wife, and bore him many children as rumbustious as Amaterasu the sun goddess, and as pretty as the moon, and that this continued until one day the Shogun was on a journey and he happened to accidentally kill a fox. He hurried home to explain to his wife that it hadnt been intentional, but when he arrived he found his household in mourning, for his wife had already left him, with all his sons and daughters.Oh, too bad, Matt muttered, trying to be polite, when his brain elbowed him in the ribs. Wait. But if they all leftI see youre an attentive young man, the subtle old woman laughed. All his sons and daughters were goneexcept the youngest, a girl of uncomparable beauty, although she was just a child. She said, I love you too much to leave you, dear father, even if I must wear a human shape all my life. And that is how we are said to be descended from a kitsune.Well, these kitsune arent just causing mischief or ruining crops, Matt said. Theyre out to kill. And we have to fight back.Of course, of cou rse. I didnt mean to unconnected you with my little story, Obaasan said. Ill write out those amulets for you now.It was as Matt was leaving that Mrs. Saitou appeared at the door. She put something into his hand. He glanced down at it and saw the same calligraphy that Obaasan had given him. drop that it was much smaller and written onA Post-it note? Matt asked, bewildered.Mrs. Saitou nodded. Very useful for slapping on the faces of demons or the limbs of trees or such. And, as he stared at her in complete amazement, My mother doesnt know all there is to know about everything.She also handed him a sturdy dagger, smaller than the sword she was still carrying, but very serviceable Matt immediately tailor-make himself on it.Put your faith in friends and your instincts, she said.Slightly dazed, but feeling encouraged, Matt drove to Dr. Alperts house.