The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 28

No virtuoso answered the inlet at the Smalwoods house. The driveway was empty and the house lookeddeserted, the shades pul ed down.Maybe Calebs non here, monot wiz say nervously. Could he contrive asleep(p) somewhere else when he got extinct of the hospital?I can smelling him. I can get a line him brea write outg, Stefan g course of instructionled. Hes in in that respect, al right. Hes hiding out. categorical had never seen Stefan look so angry. His usual y calm kilobyte eye were bright with rage, and his fangs seemed to be involuntarily extended, little sharp points display each time he opened his mouth. Stefan caught sluggishness looking at them and frowned, running his tongue selfconsciously across his canines. prostrate glanced at Alaric, who hed been recollecting of as the only opposite normal person left in their group, entirely Alaric was watching Stefan with what was clearly fascination rather than alarm. not entirely normal, then, either, Matt thought.We c an get in, Meredith verbalize calmly. She looked to Alaric. Let me know if some geniuss coming. He nodded and positi unmatchedd himself to bend the view of any unitary walking recent on the sidewalk. With cool efficiency, Meredith wedged one end of her fighting stave in the crack of the move door and started to pry it open.The door was do of heavy oak, and clearly had two locks and a chain engaged inside, and it withstood Merediths leverage against it. Meredith swore, then muttered, Come on, progress on, redoubling her efforts. The locks and set up gave suddenly against her strength, and the door flew open, banging into the wal behind it.So much for a unflustered entrance, Stefan said. He shifted stay onlessly on the doorstep as they filed past him.Youre invited in, Meredith said, precisely Stefan move his head.I cant, he said. It only works if you tarry here.Merediths lips tightened, and she turned and ran up the stairs. in that respect was a brief shout of amazement and some muffled thumping. Alaric glanced at Matt nervously, and then up the stairs.Should we dish her? he said.Before Matt could answer and he was pretty incontestable Meredith wasnt the one who needed help she returned, shoving Caleb down the stairs before her, move one of his arms tightly behind his butt.Invite him in, she ordered as Caleb stumbled to the bottom of the stairs. Caleb shook his head, and she yanked his arm up higher so that he yelped in pain.I wont, he said stubbornly. You cant come in.Meredith pushed him toward Stefan, stopping him provided at the threshold of the front door.Look at me, Stefan said softly, and Calebs eye flew to his. Stefans pupils widened, swal o superchargeg his green irises in black, and Caleb shook his head frantical y, precisely seemed ineffective to break his gaze.Let. Me. In, Stefan ordered.Come in, then, said Caleb sul enly. Meredith released him and his eyes cleared. He turned and rush along up the stairs.Stefan burst finished the door homogeneous hed been s fervid through a gun and then stalked up the stairs. His smooth, stealthy movements reminded Matt of a predators of a lion or a shark. Matt shivered. sometimes he forgot how truly dangerous Stefan was.Id better go with him, Meredith said. We dont indigence Stefan doing anything hed regret. She paused. Not before we find out what we need to know, anyway. Alaric, youre the one who knows the most almost magic, so you come with me. Matt, keep an eye out and warn us if the Smal woods pul into the drive. She and Alaric fol owed Stefan up the stairs.Matt waited for the screaming to start, but it remained ominously quiet upstairs. Keeping one eye on the driveway through the front windows, Matt prowled through the musical accompaniment mode. He and Tyler had been friends at one time upon a time, or at least had hung out, because they were both first-string on the footbal team. Theyd known distributively other since middle school.Tyler drank too muc h, partied too hard, was gross and sexist toward young ladys, but there had been something close him that Matt had sometimes enjoyed. It was the way hed thrown himself into things, whether it was the no-holdsbarred trailer truck of an opposing teams quarterback or throwing the absolutely craziest companionship anyone had ever seen. Or the time when theyd been in seventh grade and hed gotten obsessed with winning at Street Fighter on PlayStation 2. Every day hed had Matt and the rest of the guys over, al of them spending hours sitting on the floor of Tylers bedroom, eating chips and lecture trash and pounding the buttons of the control er until Tyler had figured out how to win every fight.Matt heaved a sigh and peered out the front window again.There was a brief muffled thump from upstairs, and Matt froze. Silence.As he turned back to pace across the living room again, Matt noticed a particular photo among the neat row of frames on top of the piano. He crossed over and picked it up.It must have been the footbal banquet, junior course of instruction. In the read, Matts arm was around Elena, who hed been dating then, and she was smiling up at him. Next to them stood Tyler, hand in hand with a girl whose name Matt couldnt remember. Alison, maybe, or Alicia. Shed been older than them, a senior, and had graduated that year and left town. They were al dressed up, he and Tyler in jackets and ties, the girls in party dresses. Elena had worn a white, deceptively simple short dress, and looked so engaging that shed taken Matts breath extraneous.Things had been so easy then. The quarterback and the prettiest girl in school. Theyd been the perfect couple. Then Stefan came to town, a cold, mechanical voice whispered to him, and destruct everything.Stefan, who had pretended to be Matts friend. Stefan, who had pretended to be a military man being.Stefan, who had prosecute Matts girlfriend, the only girl Matt had ever real y been in love with. Probably the only gir l he would ever receive that way about. Sure, theyd broken up effective before Elena met Stefan, but Matt might have gotten her back, if not for him.Matts mouth twisted, and he threw the photo to the floor. The sugarcoat didnt break, and the photo just lay there, Matt and Elena and Tyler and the girl whose name he didnt remember smiling barely up at the ceiling, unaware of what was impetus toward them, of the chaos that would erupt less than a year later. Because of Stefan. Stefan. Matts slope was hot with anger. There was a buzzing in his head. Stefan the traitor. Stefan the monster. Stefan who had stolen Matts girl.Matt stepped deliberately onto the picture and ground it beneath his heel. The wooden frame snapped. The feel of the glass smashing chthonic his foot was oddly satisfying. Without looking back, Matt stomped across the living room toward the stairs. It was time for him to deal with the monster who had ruined his life.Confess Stefan growled, doing his silk hat to compel Caleb. further he was so weak and Caleb kept throwing up mental blocks. No doubt about it this son had access to Power.I dont know what youre talking about, Caleb said, pressing his back against the wal as if he could dig into it. His eyes flicked nervously from Stefans angry face to Meredith, who was holding her staff equilibrise amidst her hands, ready to strike, and back to Stefan. If you just leave me only, I wont go to the police. I dont want any trouble.Caleb looked pale and shorter than Stefan remembered. There were bruises on his face, and one of his arms was in a cast and supported by a sling. Despite everything, Stefan entangle a twinge of guilt as he looked at him.Hes not human, he reminded himself.Although Caleb didnt seem al that wolfish either, for a wolfman. Shouldnt there be a little more of the animal in him? Stefan hadnt known many werewolves, but Tyler had been al big white teeth and barely repressed aggression. Next to him, Alaric blinked at the i njured boy. Cocking his head to one side and examining him, he echoed Stefans thoughts, asking skeptical y, Are you sure hes a werewolf?A werewolf? said Caleb. Are you al weirdo? But Stefan was watching Caleb careful y, and he byword a lilliputian flicker in Calebs eyes. Youre lying, Stefan said coldly, reaching out with his mind once more, final y finding a crack in Calebs defenses. You dont think were crazy. Youre just surprised that we know about you.Caleb sighed. His face was stil white and strained, but a certain falseness went out of it as Stefan spoke. His shoulders slumped and he stepped away from the wal a little, head hanging wearily.Meredith tensed, ready to spring, as he go forward. He stopped and held up his hands. Im not going to try anything. And Im not a werewolf. But, yeah, I know Tyler is, and Im guessing that you know that, too.Youve got the werewolf gene, Stefan told him. You could slow be a werewolf, too.Caleb shrugged and looked Stefan straight in the eye. I guess. But it didnt take chances to me it happened to Tyler.Happened to? Meredith asked, her voice rising with outrage. Do you know what Tyler did to force a werewolf?Caleb glanced at her warily. What he did? Tyler didnt do anything. The family curse caught up with him, thats al .His face was shadowed and anxious.Stefan found his tone gentling despite himself. Caleb, you have to kil someone to become a werewolf, even if you carry the gene. Unless youre bitten by a werewolf yourself, there are certain rituals that have to be performed. Blood rituals. Tyler murdered an innocent girl.Calebs knees seemed to give out, and he slid to the floor with a muffled thump. He looked sick. Tyler wouldnt do that, he said, but his voice was unsteady. Tyler was like a brother to me after my parents died. He wouldnt kil anyone. I dont believe you.He did, Meredith confirmed. Tyler murdered Sue Carson. We negotiated for her to come back to life, but it doesnt change the fact that he did kil her.Her voice held the intelligible ring of truth, and al the fight seemed to go out of Caleb. He sank let down and rested his forehead against his knees. What do you want from me?He looked so thin and rumpled that, despite the urgency of their mission, Stefan was distracted. Werent you tal er than this? he asked. Bigger? more than put unitedly? The last time I saw you, I lowly.Caleb mumbled something into his knees, too muffled and distorted for even a vampire to hear properly. What?Stefan asked.Caleb looked up, his face smudged with tears. It was a glamour, okay? he said bitterly. I made myself look better because I wanted Elena to want me. Stefan thought of Calebs glowing, rose-cheeked face, his height, his crowning halo of golden curls. No wonder he had seemed risible subconsciously Stefan must have known how unlikely it was that an ordinary human would look that much like an archangel. No wonder he felt so much lighter than I expected when I threw him across the graveyard, Stef an thought.So you are a magic user, even if you arent a werewolf,Meredith said swiftly.Caleb shrugged. You knew that already, he said. I saw what you did to my workroom in the shed. What more do you want from me?Meredith stepped forward warningly, stave at the ready, her gaze clear and pitiless, and Caleb flinched away from her. What we want, she said, enunciating every word distinctly, is for you to tel us how you summoned the phantom, and how we can get rid of it. We want our friends back.Caleb stared at her. I swear I dont know what youre talking about.Stefan prowled toward Caleb on his other side, keeping him off balance so that the boys eyes flicked nervously back and forth between Stefan and Meredith.Then Stefan stopped. He could see that Caleb looked genuinely confused. Was it workable that he was tel ing the truth? Stefan knelt so that he was at eye train with Caleb and tried a softer tone. Caleb? he asked, depleting his last remnants of Power to compel the boy to speak. C an you tel us what kind of magic you did? Something with the roses, right? What was the spel supposed to do?Caleb swal owed, his Adams apple bobbing. I had to find out what happened to Tyler, he said. So I came here for the summer. No one seemed worried, but I knew Tyler wouldnt just drip out of sight. Tyler had talked about you, al of you, and Elena Gilbert. Tyler abhord you, Stefan, and at first he liked Elena, and then he real y hated her, too. When I came here, though, everyone knew Elena Gilbert was dead. Her family was stil mourning her. And you were gone, Stefan youd left town. I tried to put the pieces together about what had happened there were some pretty strange stories and then gobs of other weird things happened in town. Violence, and girls going crazy, and children attacking their parents. And then, suddenly, it was over it just stopped, and it was like I was the only one who remembered it happening. But I too remembered just a normal summer. Elena Gilbert had be en here the whole time, and no one thought anything of it, because they didnt remember her dying. Only I seemed to have two sets of memories. People who Id seen get hurt he shuddered at the memory or even kil ed were fine again. I felt like I was going crazy.Caleb pushed his shaggy dark blond hair back out of his face, rubbed his nose, and took a breath. Whatever was going on, I knew you and Elena were at the center of it. The differences between the memories told me that. And I figured that you must be connected to Tylers disappearance, too. Either youd through with(p) something to him, or you knew something about what had happened to him. I figured if I could pul you and your friends apart, something would come out. one time you were set against one another, Id be able to work my way in and find out what was going on. Maybe I could get Elena to fal for me with a glamour, or one of the other girls. I just had to know. He looked from one to another of them. The rose spel was sup posed to make you irrational, turn you against one another.Alaric frowned. You mean you didnt summon anything?Caleb shook his head. Look, he said, pul ing a thick leather-bound volume from under his bed. The spel I used is in here. Thats al I did, honest.Alaric took the book and flipped through the pages until he found the right spel . He studied it, his forehead crinkling, and said, Hes tel ing the truth. There isnt anything about summoning a phantom in this book. And the spel here fits what we saw in Calebs workshop and what Ive been reading in his notebooks. This rose spel is a jolly low-level discord spel it would make whatever negative emotions we were feeling hate, anger, jealousy, fear, trouble just a little bit stronger, make us a little more likely to blame one another for anything that went wrong.But when combined with the powers of whatever phantom might be hanging around here, the spel would become a feedback loop, just as Mrs. Flowers said could happen, strengthenin g our emotions and make the phantom more powerful, Stefan said slowly.Jealousy, said Meredith thoughtful y. You know, I hate to admit it, but I was horribly jealous of Celia when she was here. She glanced apologetical y at Alaric, who reached out and gently touched her hand.She was jealous of you, too, Stefan said matter-offactly. I could sentiency it. He sighed. And Ive been feeling jealous as wel .So perhaps a jealousy phantom? Alaric said. Good, thatl give us more of a can for researching banishing spel s. Although I havent been feeling jealous at al .Of course not, Meredith said pointedly. Youre the one whos had two girls fighting over you.Suddenly Stefan felt so exhausted that his legs shook. He needed to feed, immediately. He nodded awkwardly to Caleb. Im sorry for what happened.Caleb looked up at him. Please tel me what happened to Tyler, he implored. I have to know. Il leave you alone if you just tel me the truth, I promise.Meredith and Stefan glanced at each other, and S tefan raised his eyebrows slightly. Tyler was alive when he left town this past winter, Meredith said slowly. Thats al we know about him, I swear.Caleb stared up at her for a long moment, then nodded. give thanks you, he said simply.She nodded back at him crisply, like a widely distributed acknowledging the troops, and led the way out of his room. Just then a muffled, cutoff shout came from downstairs, fol owed by a thud. Stefan and Alaric raced after Meredith down the stairs, almost bumping into her as she pul ed to a sudden halt.What is it? Stefan asked. Meredith drew aside. Matt was lying facedown at the foot of the stairs, his arms flung out as though to catch himself. Meredith stepped promptly the rest of the way down the stairs to him and turned him over gently.His eyes were closed, his face pale. He was breathing, slowly but steadily. Meredith felt his pulse, then shook him gently by the shoulder. Matt, she cal ed. Matt She looked up at Stefan and Alaric. Just like the oth ers, she said grimly. The phantoms got him.