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Stefan woke early He spent the ti Elena, who even in sleep had an inner glow like a golden flah a faintly rose-colored candle

At breakfast, everyone was hts of the day before Meredith showed Matt the picture of her brother, Cristian, the vas of the Ridgemont court system and painted her a picture of Caroline as olf It was clear that both of thehouse than anywhere else

And Elena, who had woken up with Stefan’sher, and her own ht, was completely at a loss for a Plan A or any other letter She had to be told gently by the others that only one thingof Mrs Flowers’s pitch-black coffee "He’s the only one who ht be able to use his mind instead of Post-it Notes on the kids"

And, "Stefan,"said Meredith "He’s the only one Shinichi ht be afraid of"

"I’m no use at all,"Elena said sadly She had no appetite She had gotten dressed with a feeling of love and compassion toward al humankind and a desire to help protect her ho to have to spend the day in the root cel ar Reporters ht, Stefan sent to Elena I’ on in Fell’s Church

He actual y hile the rest of the breakfast Only Elena knehy; only she could feel hi He drove into the New Wood, got out, and final y startled a rabbit out of the brush He Influenced it to rest and not be frightened Surreptitiously, in this thin woodland without cover, he took a little blood from itand choked

It tasted like some kind of hideous liquid flavored with rodent

Was a rabbit a rodent? He had been lucky enough to find a rat one day in his prison cel and it had tasted vaguely like this

But now, for days, he had been drinking hu, adventurous, and in several cases paranormal y talented individuals - the cr��otten used to it so quickly?

It shamed him now, to think of what he’d taken Elena’s blood, of course, was enough to drive any vampire wild And Meredith, whose blood had the deep crimson taste of some primordial ocean, and Bonnie, who tasted like a telepath’s dessert And final y Matt, the Al -American red-blooded boy

They’d fed him and fed him by the hour, far past what he needed to survive They’d fed hi, they’d fed hiht - Elena, whose hair was taking on a silvery cast and whose blue eyes seemed almost radiant Back in the Dark Dimension, Damon hadn’t exercised any restraint at all Elena hadn’t exercised any on her own behalf

That silvery castStefan’s stoht about it, about the last time he’d seen her hair that way She’d been dead then On her feet, but dead just the sa another oath He nificant blood exchange between the two of theht tip her over the edge

He ain adjust to the taste of ani the horror of the first tiony that see fed The feeling that his veins ht explode into flame at any moment, and the pain in his jaws

He stood up He was lucky to be alive Luckier than he ever could have drea Elena beside hi her by tel ing her, he decided

Just two hours later Stefan was back at the boardinghouse, lihtly Matt, who met him at the heavy front door, noticed the liet in and ice it"

"Just a cramp,"Stefan said briefly "I’et any back there in - you know"He looked away, flushing So did Matt, hot and cold and furious at the people who had put Stefan in this condition Va - no, he knew - that Stefan had almost died in his prison celOne day under lock and key had convinced Matt that he never wanted to be iain

He fol owed Stefan to the kitchen where Elena, Meredith, and Mrs Floere - what else? - drinking e when Elena instantly noticed the lihtly, running reassuring fingers through her hair Matt couldn’t help but wonder, though - was that glorious golden hair turning lighter? More like the silvery gold it had been when Elena had first gone with Stefan and was on her way to turning into a va it closely, turning each handful as he raked his fingers through it

"Any luck?"Elena asked him, tension in her voice

Wearily, Stefan shook his head "I went up streets and down streets and wherever I found a - a young girl as contorted, or whirling round and round, or doing any other of the things the papers mentioned, I tried to Influence them

Well, irls I couldn’t catch their eyes But the final count is zero for eleven"

Elena turned toward Meredith in agitation "What do we do?"

Mrs Flowers busily began ru above her stove "You need a nice cup of tea"

"And a rest,"Meredith said, patting hi?"

"Well - I’ve got a new idea - scrying But I need Misao’s star bal to see if it ork Don’t worry,"he added, "I won’t use any of the Power in it; I just need to look at the surface"

"I’l bring it,"Elena offered, getting up prohtly and looked at Mrs Flowers as Elena went to the door of the root cel ar and pushed Nothing nly It was Stefan who rose to help her, Stillli, "Mrs

Flowers, are you sure we should keep the star bal in that sa,"Mrs Flowers answered serenely

After that things happened very fast

As if they’d rehearsed it, Meredith pressed the exact place to open the root cel ar door Elena fel to her hands and knees

Faster than even he had i toward Stefan with one shoulder down Mrs

Floas frantical y pul ing great swaths of dried herbs down fro above the kitchen table

And then Matt was hitting Stefan with al the power in his body and Stefan was stu no resistance on the way

Meredith was co him do a complete forward flip in the air As soon as the flip took hi down the stairs, Elena got up and shut the door and Meredith leaned against it, as Matt shouted, "How do you keep in a kitsune?"

"Theseodiferous herbs into the crack under the door

"And - iron!"cried Elena, and she and Meredith and Matt al ran to the den where there was an enormous, tripartite iron fire screen Soht against the root cel ar door Just then the first crash caainst it, but the iron was heavy and the second crash against the door eaker

"What are you doing? Have you al gone crazy?"Stefan shouted plaintively, but as the entire group began to cover the door in Post-it Note amulets, he cursed instead and became pure Shinichi "You’ll be sorry, daht She cries and cries You’ll make it up to her with your blood, but not before I introduce you to some special friends of mine The kind who kno to cause real pain!"

Elena lifted her head, as if hearing so Matt watched her frown Then she cal ed to Shinichi, "Don’t even try to probe for Daone And if you try to track hireeted her froracious, what next?"murmured Mrs Flowers

Elena simply nodded for the others to fol ow her, and they went al the way to the very top of the house - Stefan’s room - and spoke in whispers

"How did you know?"

"Did you use telepathy?"

"I didn’t know at first,"Matt ad as if the star bal was in the root cel ar Stefan knows it’s not there I guess,"he added with a guilty start, "that I invited hi my hair,"Elena said with a shudder "Stefan and D - I htly, and at the ends Not s about golden hair? He’s a nutcase Anyway, I could tel fro about Elenainto a vaht

"I noticed his lapis ring,"Meredith said "I saw hiht hand as he went out earlier When he came back he had it on his left hand"

There was a brief pause as they al stared at her She shrugged "It was part of s"

"Good point,"Matt said at last "Good point He wouldn’t be able to change it in sunlight"

"How did you know, Mrs Flowers?"Elena asked "Or was it just the ere behaving?"

"Goodness, no, you’re al very good little actors But as soon as he stepped over the threshold Maa kitsune into your house?’So then I knee were in for"

"We beat hiuard! I can hardly believe it"

"Believe it,"Meredith said with a wry s up revenge right now"

Soht that you said that both you and Shinichi had keys that could take you anywhere, anytime So why couldn’t he have just said, ’Take house where the star bal is’?"

"Those were different keys froether "They’re, like, the Master Keys and Shinichi and Misao Stillhave theh it would have given him away the moment he was inside"

"Not if he went inside the root cel ar, and stayed there the whole time,"Meredith said "And maybe a Master Key can override the ’not invited inside’rule"

Mrs Flowers said, "But Ma ma Stillwould have told me Also there are no keyholes in the root cel ar at all"

"’No keyholes’wouldn’t matter, I don’t think,"Elena answered

"I think he just wanted to sho clever he was, and how he could fool us into giving him Misao’s star bal "

Before anyone else could say a word, Meredith held out her palolden with diamonds inset and had a very familiar outline

"That’s one of the Master Keys!"cried Elena "It’s e thought the Twin Fox key would look like!"

"It sort of came out of his jeans pocket when he did that flip,"Meredith said innocently

"When you were flipping him over me, you mean,"said Elena

"I suppose you picked his pocket too"

"So, right now, Shinichi doesn’t have a key to escape with!"Matt said excitedly

"No key to

"He can have fun changing into aout of the root cel ar,"Meredith said cool y "That’s if he’s got his transforear or whatever with hie in her voice, "I wonderif we should have Matt tel one other person where he’s actual y hidden the star balJustWell, just in case"