The Return: Shadow Souls Chapter 38

Talon Uh heel Elena shouted and began to race as fast as she could to tug in out of the room. This was strategy. Would the owl become however smaller so as to get through the gateway or would it destroy its sanctuary in order to stay on top of Elena?It was a good strategy, barely it didnt amount to much in the end. The owl shrank to dart through the door, and whence resumed gigantic size to attack Elena as she ran d protest the stairs.Yes, ran. With all of her military group channeled to her eyes, Elena leaped from step to step as Damon had before. Now there was no prison term for fear, no time for thinking. There was precisely time to turn all over in her fingers a small, hard, cre wind-shaped object.Shinichi and Misao they did make it into her nest.There mustiness be a ladder or virtually issue made of glass over that even Damon couldnt see, in the flowerbed where cut had stopped and barked. No Damon would generate seen it, so they must have brought their own lad der.Thats why their trail ended there. They climbed straight up into the library. And they ruined the flowers in the bed, which is why the new flowers werent doing so well.Elena knew from Aunt Judith, from her childhood, that transplanted flowers took awhile to revive and perk up again.LeapjumpleapI am a spirit of fire. I cannot miss a step. I am a fire elemental. Leapleapleap.And then Elena was savouring at level ground, nerve-racking not to leap into it, but a pris cardinalr to her body which was already leaping. She fell hard enough to dead(p) unmatchable side, but she kept hold of the precious crescent clutch in a deathgrip in her render.A gigantic beak irritated into glass where she had been a upshot before she slid. Talons raked her back.Bloddeuwedd was still after her.salvia and his group of sturdy young male and female lamias traveled at the pace of a running frankfurter. Saber could lead them, but only as fast as he himself could go. Fortunately few mountain see med to want to instigate a fight with a dog that weighed as much as they did that weighed more than many of the beggars and children they encountered as they reached the bazaar.The children crowded almost the carriage, slowing them further. Sage took the time to exchange an expensive jewel for a purse full of small change and he scattered the coins screwing the carriage as they went, allowing Saber free reign.They passed dozens of stalls and cut through streets, but Saber was no ordinary bloodhound. He had enough prop onent to confound most vampires. With perhaps only one or devil of the discern atoms stuck to his nasal membrane he could hunt down his goal. Where some other dog might be fooled by one of the hundreds of similar kitsune trails they were locomotion through, Saber examined and rejected each of them as being not quite a the right shape, size, or sculpture.There came a time, though, when even Saber seemed defeated. He stood in the center of a six-way crossroads, regardless of traffic, limping slightly, and going in circles. He couldnt seem to choose a path.And nor could I, my friend, Sage thought. Weve come so far, but its clear they went on farther. No way to go up or dig downSage hesitated, looking around the crimson-colored hustle of roads.And then he saw something.Directly across from him, but to his leave was a perfumery. It must sell hundreds of fragrances, and billions of scent shreds were deliberately being released into the air.Saber was blind. non blind in his keen liquid dark eyes. however where it mattered he was numbed and blinded by the billions of scents that were being blown up his nose.The vampires in the carriage were calling to go on or go back. They had no sense of real adventure, them. They just wanted a nice show. And doubtless many had slaves who were recording the whipping for them so they could enjoy it at unfilled at home.At that moment a flash of blue and sumptuous decided Sage. A Guardian Eh, bienHeel, S aberSabers crack and tail drooped as Sage randomly picked one of the directions and had him race alongside the running vampire to get out of the thoroughfare and onto another street.But then, miraculously, the tail went up again. Sage estimated that there could not be even one molecule of the kitsunes scent left in Sabers nostrils nowbut the memory of the scentthat was still there.Saber was once again in hunting mode, with head down, tail straight, all his Power and intelligence concentrated on one goal and one goal only to find another molecule that matched the three-dimensional memory of the one in his mind. Now that he was not blinded by the searing smell of all those different concentrated odors, he was able to think more clearly. And thinking alerted him to slip in surrounded by streets, causing a commotion behind him.What about the carriage? lug about the carriage Dont lose sight of that guy with the dogSage, trying to keep up with Saber himself, knew when a chase was about to end. Tranquillit he thought to Saber. He also barely whispered the word. He had never been certain if his animal friends were telepathic or not, but he care to believe that they were, while behaving as if they were not. Tranquillit he told himself.And so, when the huge black dog with the smart dark eyes and the man ran up the steps to one particular ramshackle building, they did it silently. Then, as if hed had a pleasant stroll in the country, Saber sat and looked at Sage in the face, laughing-panting. He capable and closed his mouth in a silent parody of a bark.Sage waited for the young vampires to catch up with him before be undefended the door. And, as he wanted the element of surprise, he didnt knock. Instead he smashed a fist with the Power of a sledgehammer through the door and groped for locks and chains and bolts. He could feel none. He did feel a knob.Before opening the door, and going into who knew what peril, he said to those behind him, whatsoever loot we take i s the property of Master Damon. I am his gaffer and it was only through my dogs skills that we have made it so far.There was agreement, ranging from kick to indifferent.By the same token, Sage said, whatever danger is in there, I face first. Saber NOWThey burst into the room, nearly taking the door off its hinges.Elena cried out involuntarily. Bloddeuwedd had just done what Damon would not, and lined her back with bloody(a) furrows from her talons.But even as Elena managed to find the glass door to the outside, she could feel other minds surging to help sustain her, to lift and share some of the pain.Bonnie and Meredith were picking their way through huge shards of glass to get to her. They were screaming at the owl. And Talon, heroically, was attacking from above.Elena couldnt stand it any longer. She had to see. She had to know that this metallic-feeling thing that shed picked out of Bloddeuwedds nest wasnt some bit of filthy rubbish. She had to know now. abrasion the tiny scra p of metal against the ill-fated scarlet dress, she took a moment to glance downward, to see crimson sunlight sparkle against gold and baseball fields and 2 folded-back little ears and two bright common alexandrite eyes.The duplicate of the first jumble key half, but facing the other way.Elenas legs almost gave way underneath her.She was holding the second half of the fox key.Hurriedly, then, Elena brought up her free hand and plunged her fingers down into the carefully made little sacking behind the diamond insert. It concealed a tiny pouch, specially sewn there by Lady Ulma herself. In it was the first half of the fox key, replaced there as soon as Saber and Talon had finished with it. Now, as she shoved the second half-key into the pocket with the first, she was disconcerted to feel movement in the pouch. The two pieces of the fox key were what, becoming one?A black beak slammed into the wall beside her.Without even thinking, Elena ducked and rolled to escape it. When her f ingers flew back to make sure that the pouch was tie up and secure, she was astonished to feel a familiar shape resting inside.Not a key?Not a keyThe world was spin around wildly around Elena. Nothing mattered not the object not her own life. The kitsune twins had tricked them, had made fools of the idiot humans and the vampire who had dared to face up to them. There was no double fox key.Still, hope refused to die. What was it Stefan used to swan? Mai dire mai never say never. Knowing what a chance she was taking, discriminating she was a fool for taking it, Elena thrust her finger again into the pouch.Something self-possessed slipped onto one finger and stayed there.She glanced down and for a moment was arrested by the sight. There, on her ring finger, gleamed a gold, diamond-encrusted ring. It represented two abstract foxes curled together, one facing each way. Each fox had two ears, two green alexandrite eyes, and a pointed nose.And that was all. Of what use was a trinket like this to Stefan? It bore no resemblance to the double-winged keys shown in the pictures of kitsune shrines.As treasure, it was surely worth a meg times less than what they had already spent to get it.And then Elena find something.A light shone from the eyes of one of the foxes. If she hadnt been staring at it so closely, or if she hadnt been by now in the White Waltz Ballroom, where change showed true, she might not have noticed it. But the light was glistening straight ahead of her as she dour her hand sideways. Now it was shining from four eyes.It was shining in exactly the direction of Stefans prison cell. accept rose up like a phoenix in Elenas heart, and took her noble-minded on a mental journey out of this labyrinth of glass rooms. The music playing was the waltz from Faust. Away from the sun, deep into the heart of the city, that was where Stefan was. And that was where the sickish green light from the foxs eyes was shining.Riding high on hope, she turned the ring. The light winked out of both foxs eyes, but when she turned the ring so that the second fox was in line with Stefans cell, it winked on.Secret signals. How long could she have owned a ring like that and done nothing if she hadnt already known where Stefans prison was?Longer than Stefan had left to live, probably.Now she only had to plump long enough to reach him.