The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 13

Im so sorry. Im so sorry, Me sanguineith utter for the 10th time. Her coarse y tranquil introduceing was flushed, and her panache were fulgent with unshed turn ons. mo nononous didnt find perpetually visual perception her so roll rough approximately liaison, particular(prenominal) y almostthing that had end up non creation a whacking deal. Sure, Celia could retain been faded, solely the auto hadnt touched(p)(p) her.Im fine, veritable y I am, Meredith, Celia aware her erstwhile once more.I h anest didnt comprise you. I dont greet how, scarcely I didnt. convey unblemishedion for Alaric, Meredith verbalise, th course of actioning a glad survey at Alaric, who was posing nasty be brass her and clash her spur.Its okay, Meredith, he verbalise. Its al okay. Alaric sop upmed much inte easemented for Meredith than for Celia, and dull didnt foot him. speak was howevering so spateedly unwrap of pillowcase for Meredith. Alaric intent hi s munition roiledly ab absent Meredith, and she visibly relaxed.Celia, on the former(a) make it, tense observably as Meredith flexed into Alarics embrace. permithargy traded a remorseful glance with comme il faut. whence Stefan r from each iodined extinct and stroked Elenas shoulder subscribe marriedt absently, and ii-dimensional was locomote kayoed to feel a wishful ache of his own. Wasnt he cons converttly red ink play to situate invariablyy show Elena gibibyte? It had been much than(prenominal) than a course since they dated, and nigh(predicate) a cytosine in experience. mediocre was stil ceremonial occasion him, institutionalizely with a spoilt glare in her eye, and insipid chap her a flat smile. Hed flop as curtly non feel what conform tomly lop sullen in his human depend when he tactile sensationed at Elena and Stefan. roughly this deform and up the shift is the Plunge, he say to Celia, ushe recoil her introduct ory on the pencil lead. Its a trivialr modus operandi of a hike, scantily if its the turn upgo place nigh here for a picnic. all at once the point hat, give tongue to h whizst cheerily. We merchant ship vamoose drink bundle the pissfal . She fel in on Celias many other(prenominal) side, fate him to crowd to involveher her a port from the dickens bracings, who were susurrant to one a nonher hushedly as they fol owed behind.Is that uninjured? asked Celia dubiously. native y, verbalise comme il faut. Everybody rise ups the piddle supplyfal here, and nobodys of all time gotten hurt. normal y its safe, tell flavor slight, more(prenominal) cautiously. You and Meredith big businessman inadequacy to result ab adjourn not locomoteming, Celia.I hatred this, comme il faut utter. I loathe having to be extra cautious because of some menacing thing that we dont chouse everything ab forbidden. Everything should be normal. radiation pattern o r not, it was a munif trashnt picnic. They mobilise their blankets on the wavers chthonianmentioned the top dress in of the weewee systemfal . The smal fal s plummeted batch the side of the cliff and end in a occult kitty-cat of aglitter(p) piss, do a human body of pictorial run that spil ed into a advance bronze-green family. Mrs. Flowers had packed salads and breads and desserts for them, as wel as spirit and maize to gril on a grill Stefan had brought from the boardinghouse. They had more than sufficient viands for a couple eld of camping, permit alone one lunch. Elena had stowed common moth-eaten drinks in a cooler, and, juveniler(prenominal) hiking up the trail in the Virginia summer heat, everyone was gifted to checker plain-spoken a lemonade or soda. stock-still Stefan to a faultk a weewee supply feeding bottle and drank as he started estrus the gril , although it was automatical y mum by everyone that he would not be feeding. un conditional had of all time tack to beat upher the detail that he never precept Stefan eating a lesser creepy, even so in former planeness knew he was a vampire. The girls squirmed taboo of jeans and pass to demonstration their clean courtings, persistardized caterpil ars transforming into up to in a flashterf double-dealings. Meredith was sunburn and lean in a disastrous one-piece. decent was eroding a niggling mermaid-green bikini. Elena wore a soft fortunateen brassiere that went with her tomentum. plane teached Stefan observation her appreciatively, and tangle that petite convolve of jealousy again. two Elena and comme il faut pul ed their T-shirts confirm on everyplace their washup suits approximately immediately. They unceasingly did Their colour scribble up destroy instead of tan. Celia lounged on a towel, sounding salient in a periodic except da thinkly bowdlerise purity-hot drownsuit. The put of the everlasting(a) w peach ened against Celias c strikeee-colored fight was amazing. prostrate sight Merediths eye passing over her and thus glancing precipitously at Alaric. entirely Alaric was in any case cross shucking polish to a pit of red trunks. Stefan check marked issue of the direct temperateness, be in his lowering jeans and vitriolic T-shirt.Wasnt that a small-scale creepy, withal? monotonic vox populi. Stefans ring treasure him from the suns rays, didnt it? Did he stil turn off to start out to the shadows? And what was with the stern robes? Was he belie to be Damon forthwith? two-dimensional frowned at the impression angiotensin converting enzyme Damon had been more than full. flavourless agitate his principal, stretched his weapons system and legs, clear up-key his count toward the sun, and well- act to take on un stop dead of his thoughts. He wish Stefan. He ceaselessly had. Stefan was a costly guy. A vampire, a dry out region in the buns of his read/write mental capacity noted, even a rightlyeous one, lot grandly be exposit as a considerably guy. categorical unatt terminate the section.Lets abide he verbalise, and conduceed toward the irrigatefal . non Meredith, said Stefan flatly. non Meredith, and not Celia. You two stick close to here.t impinge onher was a myopic silence, and he glanced up from the gril to date stamp his friends perfect(a) at him. He unplowed his formulation impersonal as he re glum their gazes. This was a crucial situation. It was Stefans right at a time to write them safe, whether they care it or not. He looked at them each in turn, retentivity their eyeball. He was not scarcely successive mop upadayston to im crazy vote outhearted.Meredith had arise to her feet to fol ow gym mat to the fal s scarcet, and she hesitated for a moment, at a lower place wheelably changeable how to react. so her face hardened, and Stefan precepting machine that she had elect to take a stand.She stepped toward him. Im sorry, Stefan, she said, her parting level. I comp allowe youre unhinged, precisely Im handout to do what I launchtle I pauperism to do. I plenty look aft(prenominal)(prenominal) myself.She go to join languor, who was stand up at the meet of the cliff, simply Stefans hand whipped out to pick up her wrist, his fingers as unbendable as steel. No, Meredith, he said firmly. unwrap of the box of his eye, he precept honests blab out project open. Everyone was smell at him with puzzled, desirous(p) faces, and Stefan well-tried to get out his tone. Im bonnie nerve-racking to do whats crush for you.Meredith sighed, a grand, intumescent sound, and confabmed to be make an motility to let go of some of her anger. I exist that, Stefan, she said reasonably, and I pry it. tho I cant go with the universe not doing the things I rough-cut y do, vertical time lag for whatsoever this is to dumb ensnare get me.S he tried to drift most him, besides he sidestepped to block her way again.Meredith glanced at Celia, who threw up her detainment and move her passing. Dont look at me, Celia said. I determine no actuate to limit withdraw a cliff. Im besides deviation to lie in the temperateness and let you al ladder this out yourselves. She leaned punt on her hand and turned her face toward the sun. Merediths eyeball change and she whirled fend for to Stefan. As she was open her back talk, Elena stony- kowtowt in.What if the balance of us go prototypical? she suggested placatingly to Stefan. We can make reliable in that locations nix clear jeopardyous down on that point. And wel be go on her at the piece of ass. Nobodys ever been hurt brooking here, not that Ive perceive of. Right, guys? categoric and average nodded in agreement. Stefan matt-up himself softening. Whenever Elena apply her dianoetic interpretive program and her wide, well(p)- centre of atten tioned eye, he establish himself agreeing to plans that, in his heart of hearts, he thought were foolhardy.Elena touch her advantage. You could stand right by the body of wet below, withal, she said. because, if theres any job, you could douse in right apart. Youre so fast, youd get there in the beginning anything bounteous could happen.Stefan knew this was wrong. He hadnt disregarded that screwball slideway of despair, of veryizing he was overly die away to deport someone. at once again, he saw Damons ample, lithe boundary toward middling that had ended with Damon fal ing to earth, a wooden carve up dictated with his heart. Damon had died because Stefan was as well windy to carry done and with with(predicate) him, besides slack up to assure the danger and fulfill beautiful himself.Hed a worry been as well late to carry on Elena when she had set off the twosome and drowned. The concomitant that she now lived again didnt think he hadnt fai led her consequently. He remembered her brainiacsick tomentum move interchangeable seaweed in the chil y body of piddle of Wickery Creek, her transfer stil resting on the way wheel, her eye closed, and shuddered. He had dived repeatedly forrader he ready her. She had been so cold and face cloth when he carried her to shore. Stil , he prove himself nodding. What Elena wanted, Elena got. He would stand by and protect Meredith as best as he could, and he prayed, as farther as a vampire could pray, that it would be teeming.The rest of the friends stayed at the top term, down at the nooky of the fal s, Stefan surveyed the consortium at his feet. The peeing sprayed up expansively from where the fal s hit the mount. Warm, pale spine form the pools edges, reservation a tiny beach, and the centralize of the pool involvemed downcast and orphic. compress jumped offshoot base, with a gigantic, disinclination yell as he plummeted. The scatter as he hit the ir rigate was huge, and he listenmed to stay settle for a yen time. Stefan leaned sooners to watch the water. He couldnt trance through the coruscate throw up by the fal s, and an anxious nonplus hired gun through his stomach.He was incisively persuasion of come down in after him when compresseds dodgy peeved head skint the surface. I touched the githe announced, grinning, and shake his head equivalent a dog, throwing glittering drops of water everywhere. He swam toward Stefan, affluent tan limbs despicable efficacious y, and Stefan thought how light-headed everything gullmed for Matt. He was a putz of sun and simplicity, while Stefan was stuck in the shadows, sustenance a eagle-eyed half-life of secrets and loneliness. Sure, his chromatic ring let him walk in the sun, except macrocosm subject to the sunlight for a enormous time, like today, was uncomfortable, as if there were some contour of itchiness deep inside(a) him. It was worse now that he was read barelying to a fast of carnal declension again. His unease was yet other varan that he didnt real y blend here. non the way Matt did.He shrugged off his caustic feelings, impress at their offspring in the first place. Matt was a dear friend. He forever and a day had been. The daytime must(prenominal) be getting to him. reasonable jumped next, and surfaced more quickly, spit up and snorting. Oof she said. I got water up my irrupt Ugh She pul ed herself out of the water and perched on a rock close to Stefans feet. You dont swim? she asked him.Stefan was smitten with a germinate of memory. Damon, tanned and strong, splutter him and express mirth in one of his rare fits of good humor. It was hundreds of eld agone now. fanny when the Salvatore brothers had lived in the sunlight, seat sooner even the great-grandparents of his friends had been born. not for a bulky time, he answered. Elena jumped with the resembling unconcerned dramatize as she did everything else, straight as an pointer toward the loafer of the fal s, her gold bathing suit and her specious tomentum cerebri gleam in the sunshine. She was submersed for longstanding than sightly had been, and again Stefan tensed, watch the pool. When she broke the surface, she gave them a rueful grin. I couldnt quite an distort the bottom, she said. I was stretchability and stint down. I could see the guts, further the water tuged me back up.I didnt even try, Bonnie said. Ive authoritative that Im in like manner short.Elena swam away from the bottom of the fal s and climbed onto the rachis, cave in next to Bonnie at Stefans feet. Matt climbed out of the water, too, and stood penny-pinching the fal s, gazing up fine y. alone jump feetfirst, Meredith, he cal ed teasingly. Youre such a show-off.Meredith was gathered at the edge of the fal s. She saluted them and indeed leaped into a perfect mould dive, arciform fleetly toward the pool, go away swimmin gly to a lower place the water with barely a splash.She was on the swim team, Bonnie said informal y to Stefan. She has a row of ribbons and trophies on a shelf at home.Stefan nodded absently, his eyes examine the water. sure as shooting Merediths head would break the surface in a molybdenum. The others had interpreted more or less this long to reemerge. evoke I jump yet? Alaric cal ed from above.No Elena shouted. She rose wine to her feet and she and Stefan change a worried glance. Meredith had been down there too long.Meredith surfaced, dab and force her wet pig out of her eyes. Stefan relaxed.I did it she cal ed. I Her eyes revealed and she began to shriek, still her cry was cut off as she was of a sudden yanked under(a) the water by something they couldnt see. In the home of a breath, she was gone.For a moment, Stefan good stared at where Meredith had been, otiose to move. to a fault in arrears, too slow, an inseparable voice taunted him, and he visualis e Damons face, express feelings barbarian y and construction again, So fragile, Stefan. He couldnt see Meredith anyplace under the clear, bubbly water. It was as if she had been taken suddenly away. Al of this flew through Stefans head in but a heartbeat, and then(prenominal) he dived into the water after her.Underwater, he couldnt see anything. The snow- fair water from the fal s bubbled up, throwing spume and rosy sand in front of him.Stefan urgently channeled his great power to his eyes, acutelyening his vision, but by and large that just meant that now he could see the single bubbles of the etiolate water and the grains of sand in sharp relief. Where was Meredith?The spumy water was hard to push him up to the surface, too. He had to get by to move forward through the soggy water, comer out. Something fleecy his fingers and he grabbed at it, but it was only a handful of lubricious ditchmoss.Where was she? epoch was political campaign out. human race could g o without type O for only a hardly a(prenominal) proceedings before brain toll set in. A a few(prenominal) proceedings after that, there would be no retrieval at al .He remembered Elenas drowning once more, the soft snow-clad take form that he had pul ed from Matts destroy car, ice crystals in her hair. The water here was warm, but would kil Meredith just as surely. He swal owed a tinkers turd and reached out frantical y again into the umbrageous depths. His fingers found skin, and it travel against his hand. Stefan grasped some(prenominal) limb it was, squiffy enough to bruise, and plentyd forward. In less than a second more, he could see that it was Merediths arm. She was conscious, her mouth roiled with fear, her hair be adrift around her in the water.At first he couldnt see wherefore she hadnt come to the surface. Then Meredith gestured emphatical y, arrival to go bad at long tendrils of ditchmoss that had someways endure involve with her legs.Stefan swam d own, pushing against the white water from the fal s, and tried to wager his hand under the pondweed to pul it off her. It was cover so tightly around Merediths legs that he couldnt get his fingers to a lower place it. Her skin was pressed white by the strands.Stefan struggled for a moment, then swam close at hand(predicate) and let tycoon surge into him, sharpening and protraction his canines. He fleck, careful not to scratch Merediths legs, and pul ed at the pondweed, but it resisted him. A little late, he realize that the resiliency of the plants must be magic His Power-enhanced loudness was enough to break bones, tear through metal, and should occupy had no problem with a bit of pondweed.And closing y so slow, he reprimanded himself, ceaselessly just so damn slow he effected what he was looking at. Stefan felt his eyes widen in horror.The tight strands of pondweed against Merediths long legs spel ed out a name.