"Strip to your underwear and get in on the other side,"Damon said. His voice was neither angry nor fatuous.
He added shortly, "Elena is dying."
The last three words seemed to affect Stefan particularly, although Elena couldn't parse them. Stefan wasn't moving, just breathing hard, his eyes wide. "Bonnie and I have been gathering hay and fuel and we're All right."
"You've been exercising - moving about - wearing clothes that kept you warm. She's been dunked in ice water and sitting Still - high up in the wind. I got the other thurg to break off wood from the dead trees around here and try it on the fire. Now get the hel in, Stefan, and give her some body warmth, or I'm going to make her a vampire."
"Nnn,"Elena tried to say, but Stefan didn't seem to understand.
Damon, however, said, "Don't worry. He's going to warm you up from the other side. You won't have to become a vampire just yet. For God's sake,"he added suddenly, explosively,
"some prince you picked!"
Stefan's voice was quiet and tense. "You tried putting her in a thermal envelope?"
"Of course I tried, you idiot! No magic works beyond the Mirror except telepathy."
Elena had no sense of time going by, but suddenly there was a familiar body pressed against hers from the other side.
And somewhere directly in her mind: Elena? Elena? You're All right, aren't you, Elena? I don't care whether you're playing a joke on me. But you're real y All right, aren't you?
Just tell me that, love.
Elena wasn't able to answer at all.
Dimly, fragments of sound came to her ears: "Bonnie...on top of her and...pack ourselves back on either side."
And dul feelings stirred her sense of touch: a smal body, almost weightless, like a thick blanket, pressing down on her.
Someone sobbing, tears dripping on her neck from above.
And warmth on either side.
I'm asleep with the other kittens, she thought, dozing. Maybe we'l have a nice dream.
"I wish we could know how they're doing,"Meredith said, on a pause from one of her pacing bouts.
"I wish they knew how we're doing,"Matt said wearily as he taped another note card amulet onto a window. And another.
"Do you know, my dears, I kept hearing a child crying last night in my dreams,"Mrs. Flowers said slowly.
Meredith turned, startled. "So did I! Right out on the front porch, it sounded like. But I was too tired to get up."
"It might mean something - or nothing at all."Mrs. Flowers frowned. She was boiling tap water for tea. The electricity was sporadic. Matt and Saber had driven back to the boardinghouse earlier that day so that Matt could gather Mrs.
Flowers's most important instruments - her herbs for teas, compresses, and poultices. He hadn't had the heart to tel her about the state of the boardinghouse, or what those maggot malach had done to it. He'd had to find a loose board from the garage to get from the hal to the kitchen.
There was no third floor anymore and very little second.
At least he hadn't run into Shinichi.
"What I'm saying is that maybe there's some real kid out there,"Meredith said.
"At night alone? Sounds like a Shinichi zombie,"Matt said.
"Maybe. But maybe not. Mrs. Flowers, do you have any idea of when you hear the crying? Early in the night or late?"
"Let me think, dear. It seems to me that I hear it whenever I wake up - and old people wake up quite frequently."
"I usual y hear it toward the morning - but I usual y sleep without dreaming for the first few hours and wake up early."
Mrs. Flowers turned to Matt. "What about you, Matt, dear?
Do you ever hear a sound like crying?"
Matt, who deliberately overworked himself these days to try to get a solid six hours of sleep at night, said, "I've heard the wind kind of moaning and sobbing around midnight, I guess."
"It sounds as if we have an al -night ghost, my dears,"Mrs.
Flowers said calmly and poured them each a mug of tea.
Matt saw Meredith glance at him uneasily - but Meredith didn't know Mrs. Flowers as well as he did.
"You don't real y think it's a ghost,"he said now.
"No, I don't. Ma ma hasn't said a word about it, and then it's your house, Matt, dear. No gruesome murders or hideous secrets in its past, I should think. Let me see..."She shut her eyes and let Matt and Meredith go on with their tea. Then she opened her eyes and gave them a puzzled smile.
"Ma ma says 'search the house for your ghost. Then listen well to what it has to say.'"
"Okay,"Matt said poker-faced. "Since it's my house, I guess I'd better search for it. But when? Should I set an alarm?"
"I think the best way would be to arrange a watch rota," Mrs. Flowers said.
"Okay,"Meredith agreed promptly. "I'l take the middle watch, from midnight to four; Matt can have the first one; and Mrs.
Flowers, you can have the early-morning one, and get a nap in the afternoon if you want."
Matt felt uneasy. "Why don't we just break it up into two watches and the two of you can share one? I'l take the other."
"Because, dear Matt,"Meredith said, "we don't want to be treated like 'ladies.'And don't argue" - she hefted the fighting stave - "because I'm the one with the heavy equipment."
Something was shaking the room. Shaking Matt with it. Stillhalf-asleep, he put his hand under his pil ow and pul ed out the revolver. A hand grabbed it and he heard a voice.
"Matt! It's me, Meredith! Wake up, wil you?"
Groggily, Matt reached for the lamp switch. Again, strong, slim cold fingers prevented him from doing what he wanted.