Stefan whirled around and saw Bonnie, with only a towel wrapped around her, trying to physical y restrain Elena, who was similarly clad. Elena's hair was wet and uncombed.
Something had caused her to leap out of the bathing pool and run directly into the corridor.
Stefan was surprised by Damon's reaction. Was that a spark of alarm in the endlessly dark eyes that had remained impassive watching a thousand disasters, calamities, cruelties?
No, it couldn't be. But it certainly looked like one.
Elena was getting closer. Her voice rang out clearly through the hal way, which was spacious enough to give it a slight echo. "Damon! I see you! You wait right there - I'm coming to kill you! "
This time the flicker was unmistakable. Damon glanced at the window, which was partly open.
Meanwhile Bonnie had lost the fight and Elena was running like a gazel e toward the office. Her eyes, however, were definitely not doe-like. Stefan saw them glitter dangerously as Elena herself eluded him - mainly because he didn't dare grab her by the towel, and every other part of her was slippery. Elena was now facing Damon, who had risen from his chair.
"How could you?"she cried. "Using Bonnie like that -
Influencing her, drugging her - al to get at what didn't belong to you! Using almost al the Power that was left in Misao's star bal - what did you think Shinichi would do when you did that? He came after us, that's what he did - and who knows if the boardinghouse is Stillstanding?"
Damon opened his mouth, but Elena wasn't finished.
"And then to bring Bonnie to the Dark Dimension with you - I don't care if you didn't want to waste opening the Gate or not. You knew you shouldn't be taking her here."
Damon was angry now. "I - "
But Elena cut him off without even hesitating. "Then once you drag her here you abandon her. You leave her terrified, alone, in a room where she's not even al owed to look out of the window, with a col ection of star bal s that you don't even bother to examine - but which are completely unsuitable and give her nightmares! You - "
"If the little dolt had just had the sense to wait quietly - "
"What? What did you say? "
"I said, if the little dolt had just had the sense - "
Stefan, who was already on the move, shut his eyes briefly.
He opened them again in time to see the slap and to feel Elena putting al her Power into it. It snapped Damon's head around.
What astonished him - even though he positioned himself precisely in case of it - was to see Damon's hand flash up as quick as a cobra's strike. There was no fol ow-through, but Stefan had already picked Elena up bodily and pul ed her back out of range.
"Let go!"Elena cried, struggling to get out of Stefan's arms, or at least get her feet on the ground. "I'm going to kill him!"
The next astonishing thing - discontinuing the raw fury that Stefan could feel coursing through Elena's aura - was that Elena was actual y winning the struggle, despite the fact that he was orders of magnitude stronger than she was. Part of it had to do with the towel, which was threatening to drop at any moment. The other part was that Elena had acquired a unique style of fighting stronger opponents - at least those with any conscience. She deliberately threw herself against any point at which it would hurt her to restrain her, and she didn't give up. Eventual y he was going to have to choose between injuring her and letting her go.
At that moment, however, Elena stopped moving. She froze, head turned as she looked behind him.
Stefan glanced backward too, and felt an electrical shock shoot through him.
Bonnie was standing directly behind them, looking at Damon, her lips parted in anguish, tears in her wide brown eyes and streaming down her cheeks.
Instantly, even before he could register Elena's pleading glance, Stefan released her. He understood: Her mood and the dynamics of this situation had just been turned upside down.
Elena adjusted her towel and turned to Bonnie, but by then Bonnie was running away down the corridor. Elena's longer strides al owed her to reach Bonnie in a moment and she caught the smal er girl and held her, not so much by force as by sisterly magnetism. "Don't worry about that snake, "Elena's voice came back to them clearly, as it was obviously meant to. "He's a - "And here Elena indulged in some very creative cursing.
Stefan could hear al of it distinctly and noticed that it broke off into tiny hushing sounds just as Elena turned into the door of the bathing salon.
Stefan glanced sideways at Damon. He didn't mind fighting his brother in the least right now; he was ful of rage himself on behalf of Bonnie. But Damon ignored him as if he were part of the wal paper, staring at nothing with an expression of icy fury.
At that moment Stefan heard a faint sound from the farthest end of the corridor, which was quite a distance away. But his vampire senses informed him that surely the person in front was a woman of consequence, probably their hostess. He stepped forward so that at least she could be greeted by someone who was wearing clothing.
However, at the last moment, Elena and Bonnie appeared in front of him, clad in dresses - gowns, rather - that were both casual and works of genius. Elena's was an informal robe of deep lapis blue, with her hair drying into a soft golden mass around her shoulders. Bonnie was wearing something shorter and lighter: pale violet, shot with threads of silver in no particular pattern. Both outfits, Stefan grasped suddenly, would look as good in the interminable sunlight as in a closed room with no windows and gas lamps.
He remembered the stories Elena had told about Lady Ulma designing gowns for her, and he realized that whatever else his hostess might be, she was truly a genius couturier.
And then Elena was running, dainty gold sandals flying, and Bonnie's silver slippers were fol owing and Stefan began to run too, fearing some unknown danger. They al arrived at the far end of the hal way at the same time, and Stefan saw that the woman standing there was dressed even more splendidly than the girls. She was wearing a deep red raw silk gown with a heavy diamond-and-ruby necklace and ring - but no bracelets.
The next minute the girls were both curtseying, deep, graceful curtseys. Stefan made his best bow.
Lady Ulma held out both hands to Elena, who seemed to be almost frantic over something that Stefan didn't understand.
Elena took the extended hands, breathing quickly and shal owly. "Lady Ulma - you're so thin - "
Just then the babbling of a baby could be heard. Elena's face lit up and she smiled at Lady Ulma, letting out a quick breath. A young servant - even younger-looking than Bonnie - gently put a tiny bundle made of lace and sheerest lawn into Lady Ulma's arms. Both Elena and Bonnie blinked away tears, al the while beaming at the child and making little nonsense noises. Stefan could understand that - they'd known the Lady since she was a whip-torn slave, trying not to miscarry.
"But how - ?"Elena began spluttering. "We saw you only a few days ago, but this baby is months old - "
"A few days? Is that how long it seems to you?"asked Lady Ulma. "To us, it has been many months. But the magic Stillworks, Elena! Your magic remained! It was an easy delivery - easy! And then Dr. Meggar says that you saved me before she suffered injury from the abuse I went through. She is trying to speak already! It is you, Elena, it is your magic!"
At this the Lady made a movement as if to kneel at Elena's feet. She got no farther than a few inches, though, because Elena caught her hands, crying, "Lady Ulma, no!"while Stefan, at his best speed, slipped beside the girl servant and caught the Lady by her elbows, supporting her weight.
"And I'm not magic,"Elena added. "Stefan, tel her that I'm not magic."
Obediently, Stefan leaned toward the ear of the tal woman.
"Elena is the most magic I've ever encountered,"he stage-whispered. "She has Powers that I can't even understand."
"Ahh!" Elena made a wordless exclamation of frustration.
"Do you know what I'm naming her?"the Lady continued. Her face, if not conventional y beautiful, was striking, with an aristocratic combination of Roman nose and high cheekbones.
"No."Elena smiled - and then "No!"Elena cried. "Please!
Don't condemn her to a life of expectations and terror. Don't tempt anyone to hurt her while she's Stilla child. Oh, Lady Ulma!"
"But my dear savior..."
Then Elena began to manage things. Once she took a situation in hand there was no way not to go with the flow of it. "Lady Ulma,"she said clearly, "forgive me for interfering in your affairs. But Bonnie has told me - "She stopped, hesitated.
"Of the troubles of strong and hopeful young girls, for the most part poor or enslaved, who have taken on the names of the three bravest young women who ever graced our world,"Lady Ulma finished for her.
"Something like that,"Elena said, flushing.