The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 28

No virtuoso answered the penetration at the Smalwoods dramatic art. The drive centering was empty and the house lookeddeserted, the shades pul ed down. perhaps Calebs not hither, flat say nervously. Could he oblige g nonp aril somewhere else when he got push through of the hospital?I can intent him. I can hear him brea frailg, Stefan growled. Hes in there, al right. Hes hiding push through. two-dimensional had neer seen Stefan look so angry. His usual y calm green eyeball were nacreous with rage, and his fangs seemed to be involuntarily ext obliterateed, little sagacious points showing both time he opened his m bulgeh. Stefan caught prostrate sounding at them and frowned, running his tongue selfconsciously across his canines. monotonic glanced at Alaric, who hed been thinking of as the besides former(a) chemical formula person left(p) in their group, simply Alaric was watching Stefan with what was clearly fascination rather than al build. Not only normal, thu sly, either, mono subtlety thought.We can own in, Meredith verbalise calmly. She looked to Alaric. Let me cheat if some mavens coming. He nodded and positioned himself to break the view of anyone walking prehistorical on the sidewalk. With cool efficiency, Meredith wedged one end of her engagement stave in the snatch of the straw man introduction and started to pry it open.The door was contract of heavy oak, and clearly had two locks and a chain engaged inside, and it withs similarlyd Merediths leverage against it. Meredith swore, then muttered, Come on, espouse on, redoubling her efforts. The locks and duress gave suddenly against her strength, and the door flew open, banging into the wal empennage it.So much for a low-keyed entrance, Stefan utter. He shifted recumblessly on the door as they filed past him.Youre invited in, Meredith said, plainly Stefan agitate his head.I cant, he said. It only flora if you live here.Merediths lips tightened, and she turned and ran up the stairs. in that respect was a apprise sh fall out of force and some obtuse thumping. Alaric glanced at bland nervously, and then up the stairs.Should we help her? he said.Before plane could answer and he was attractive certain(a) Meredith wasnt the one who unavoidable help she returned, shoving Caleb down the stairs in front her, twisting one of his arms tightly behind his rachis.Invite him in, she ordered as Caleb stumbled to the bottom of the stairs. Caleb move his head, and she yanked his arm up higher so that he yelped in pain.I wont, he said stubbornly. You cant observe in.Meredith pushed him toward Stefan, s go acrossping him only at the threshold of the front door.Look at me, Stefan said softly, and Calebs look flew to his. Stefans pupils widened, swal owing his green irises in black, and Caleb shook his head frantical y, to a greater extent than over seemed futile to break his gaze.Let. Me. In, Stefan ordered.Come in, then, said Caleb sul e nly. Meredith released him and his eyes cleared. He turned and dashed up the stairs.Stefan burst through the door resembling hed been shot through a gun and then stalked up the stairs. His smooth, stealthy movements reminded Matt of a predators of a king of beasts or a shark. Matt shivered. sometimes he forgot how truly dangerous Stefan was.Id best go with him, Meredith said. We dont want Stefan doing anything hed regret. She paused. Not in fronthand we remember out what we need to subsist, any instruction. Alaric, youre the one who knows the most roughly magic, so you follow with me. Matt, keep an eye out and inform 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, notwithstanding it remained ominously relaxation upstairs. Keeping one eye on the drive counsel through the front windows, Matt prowled through the living dwell. He and Tyler had been friends at once upon a time, or at least had hung out, because they were both first-string on the backsidebal team. Theyd cognize each other since middle school.Tyler drank too much, partied too hard, was gross and sexist toward filles, but there had been something closely him that Matt had sometimes enjoyed. It was the way hed thrown himself into things, whether it was the no-holdsbarred tackle of an argue teams quarter sticker or throwing the absolutely craziest fellowship anyone had ever seen. Or the time when theyd been in s even outth grade and hed gotten obsessed with engaging at Street Fighter on P aimStation 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 scrap and pounding the buttons of the control er until Tyler had count on 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 ill-use a cross the living room again, Matt noticed a particular characterisation among the neat row of frames on top of the piano. He crossed over and picked it up.It mustiness(prenominal) set out been the footbal banquet, junior yr. In the picture, Matts arm was almost 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 mention 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 away.Things had been so flabby then. The quarterback and the prettiest girl in school. Theyd been the pure(a) couple. wherefore Stefan came to town, a cold, mechanical interpretive program whispered to him, and destroyed everything.Stefan, who had pretended to be Matts friend. Stefan, who had pretended to be a tender-hearted being.Stefan, who had pursued Matts girlfriend, the only girl Matt had ever real y been in love with. Probably the only girl he would ever feel that way about. Sure, theyd broken up comely before Elena met Stefan, but Matt might exact gotten her back, if not for him.Matts mouth twisted, and he threw the pic to the floor. The glass didnt break, and the photo just lay there, Matt and Elena and Tyler and the girl whose name he didnt remember smiling innocently up at the ceiling, unaware of what was heading toward them, of the booby hatch that would erupt less than a year later. Because of Stefan. Stefan. Matts face 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 by choice onto the picture and ground it beneath his heel. The woody frame snapped. The feel of the glass shattering low 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 destroy his life.Confess Stefan growled, doing his best to compel Caleb. but he was so weak and Caleb unbroken throwing up mental blocks. No discredit about it this boy had access to berth.I dont know what youre talking about, Caleb said, pressing his back against the wal as if he could tunnel into it. His eyes flicked nervously from Stefans angry face to Meredith, who was retention her staff balanced between her hands, expeditious to strike, and back to Stefan. If you just leave me alone, 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 aver and supported by a sling. disdain everything, Stefan tangle a twinge of delinquency as he looked at him.Hes not human, he reminded himself.Although Caleb didnt seem al that predatory either, for a werewolf. Shou ldnt there be a little more of the animal in him? Stefan hadnt known many werewolves, but Tyler had been al big white teeth and yet repressed aggression. Next to him, Alaric blinked at the hurt 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 excited? But Stefan was watching Caleb careful y, and he saw a tiny leaf 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 moved forward. He stop and held up his hands. Im not going to interpret anything. And Im not a werewolf. But, yeah, I know Ty ler is, and Im guessing that you know that, too.Youve got the werewolf gene, Stefan told him. You could intimately be a werewolf, too.Caleb shrugged and looked Stefan straight in the eye. I guess. But it didnt happen to me it happened to Tyler.Happened to? Meredith asked, her percentage rising with outrage. Do you know what Tyler did to frame 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 change state a werewolf, even if you carry the gene. Unless youre bitten by a werewolf yourself, there are certain rituals that have to be performed. billet 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 articulation was unsteady. Tyler was care a brother to me aft(prenomi nal) 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 unmistakable ring of truth, and al the fight seemed to go out of Caleb. He sank lower 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 countersink unitedly? The last time I saw you, I mean.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 treasured Elena to want me. Stefan thought of Calebs glowing, healthy face, his height, his invest halo of golden curls. No extol he had seemed suspicious su bconsciously Stefan must have known how un uniformly it was that an public human would look that much standardized an archangel. No wonder he felt so much lighter than I expected when I threw him across the graveyard, Stefan 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 shadower, 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 take out balance so that the boys eyes flicked nervously back and forth between Stefan and Meredith.Then Stefan stopped. He could see that Caleb loo ked genuinely confused. Was it viable that he was tel ing the truth? Stefan knelt so that he was at eye level with Caleb and attempt a softer tone. Caleb? he asked, depleting his last remnants of Power to compel the boy to speak. Can you tel us what kind of magic you did? Something with the roseates, right? What was the spel suppose 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 drop out of sight. Tyler had talked about you, al of you, and Elena Gilbert. Tyler dislike 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 lots of other weird things happened in town. Violence, an d girls going crazy, and children contend 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 also remembered just a normal summer. Elena Gilbert had been here the whole time, and no one thought anything of it, because they didnt remember her dying. except I seemed to have two sets of memories. tribe 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 puritanical 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 affiliated to Tylers disappearance, too. Either youd done 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. Once you were set against one some other, 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 supposed 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 examine it, his forehead crinkling, and said, Hes tel ing the truth. There isnt anything about induction a phantom in this book. And the spel here fits what we saw in Calebs workshop and what Ive been information in his notebooks. This rose spel is a fairly low-level discord spel it would make any(prenominal) negative emotions we were sense of smell hate, anger, green-eyed monster, fear, sorrow 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, strengthening our emotions and making the phantom more powerful, Stefan said tardily.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 affected her hand.She was jealous of you, too, Stefan said matter-offactly. I could sense experience it. He sighed. And Ive been feeling jealous as wel .So perhaps a jealousy phantom? Alaric said. Good, thatl give us more of a basis for researching banishing spel s. Although I havent been feeling jealous at al .Of telephone line not, Meredith said pointedly. Youre the one whos had two girls fighting over you.Suddenly Stefan felt so exhausted that his legs shoo k. 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 Stefan raised his eyebrows slightly. Tyler was existent 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.Thank you, he said simply.She nodded back at him crisply, like a general 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 move aside. Matt was lying facedown at the foot of the stairs, his arms flung out as though to catch himself. Meredith stepped quickly the rest of t he 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 others, she said grimly. The phantoms got him.