The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 35

Elena leaped keystoneward as the shadower caught gouge. She was so destination that the agitate of the flames burned her cheeks, and she could smel her own hair smoking. Shielding her face with her hands, she eased her manner forward as silently and sneakily as she could, immediate and closer to the phantom. Her legs shook, moreover she wil ed them stil and truelove.She was consciously not letting herself locution at or think ab surface Stefans dead body crumpled on the alkali of the garage, in the same way she had kept herself from flavoring at Damon and Stefans campaign when she needed to think. Suddenly a burst of flames shot into the air, and for one glary second, Elena d ared to hope that Damon had done it. The phantom was earnest. Surely no creature of crank could withstand that.But whereforece she realized that the phantom was not save burning. She was also laughing.You fool, the phantom said to Damon, in a soft and close to tender congressman. You think fire quarter hurt me? Jealousy passel burn hotter than fire as wel as polarer than ice. You of al people should go through that, Damon. She laughed her strange clinking laugh. I can feel the jealousy, the anger that burn down in you al the time, Damon, and it burns so hot I can smel the hatred and despair that live in you, and your little petty hurts and rages are meat and drink to me. You clutch them to you and pore over them standardised treasure. You w smasherethorn mother succeeded in hurl out a critical military personnel of the multitudes of hurts that burden you, only if youl neer be free of me.Around the phantoms feet, tiny blue lines of flame ignited and bed cover quickly crosswise the story of the garage. Elena meeted in horror Were these burning traces of oil left by Mrs. Flowerss quaint car? Or was it simply the phantoms maliciousness made solid, spreading fire among them?It didnt real y matter. What mattered was that the garage was on fire, and while the phan tom top executive be impervious to the flames, the rest of them werent. Smoke fil ed the musty space, and Elena and her friends began to cough. She cover her nose and mouth with her hand.Streaking past Elena, Damon snarly and leaped for the phantoms throat.Even in their modern dire situation, Elena couldnt help admiring Damons speed and grace. He col ided with the phantom and knocked it to the floor, then recoiled, protecting his face with his leather-clad outgrowth. Fire, Elena remembered with a frisson of terror. Fire is one of the a few(prenominal) things that can kill a vampire.Her eyes watered from the smoke, but she oblige them to stay open as she moved closer, circling around freighter the phantom, who was cover charge on its feet. She could hear her friends yelling, but she concentrated on the fight. The phantom was abject more awkwardly than it had been earlier, and did not immediately attack Damon. Through the flames, Elena could curb that thick greenish fluid w as stil trickling down its solid tree trunk from the annoy Meredith had given it. Where the liquid equalizeed the flames, they flickered with a greenish blue tint.Damon lunged for the phantom once more, and it flung him off with a shrug. Snarling, they circled each other warily. Elena skittered around behind them, hard to stay out of Damons way, trying to see how she could help.A crackling from across the room distracted Elena for a second, and she glanced back to see fire acclivity the far wal , reaching for the wooden shelves set around the room. She missed see what exactly happened next, but dead Damon was skidding across the floor on his back, an irate red burn glowing on his cheek.He was up again in a second and prowling back toward the phantom, but his eyes had a just about wild glint to them that made Elena nervous. Even injured, the phantom was stronger than Damon, and, afterwards his capacious fight with Stefan, Damons reserves must be waning. He was growing reck less. Elena gathered her courage and moved closer to the phantom again, as close to the flames as she could stand. The phantom glanced back at her for a second and then away, focusing on the stronger threat.It sprang forward to meet Damon, its fiery arms spread wide and a savagely joyous smile on its face. And suddenly Meredith was there beside Damon. She looked solemn and pale as a young martyr, her lips pixilated and her eyes wary, but she moved as fast as lightning. Her meantime sliced through the air almost too quickly to see, leaving another long cut across the phantoms stomach. The phantom howled, and the flames on its torso hissed as more greenish fluid gushed from the wound.But the phantom remained upright. It snarled and reached for Meredith, who danced rapidly backward, just out of range. Meredith and Damon exchanged a wordless look and moved to flank the phantom, one on either side, so that it couldnt watch both of them at once. Damon cuffed Jealousy, a short, intense blow, and pul ed back a reddish, blistering hand. Meredith swung her interim again, nearly catching the phantom on the arm but instead cleaving only when a wisp of smoke.There was a cut off as a burning shelf col apsed onto the floor. The smoke grew thicker. external from the fight, Elena could hear bonny and Matt coughing.Elena moved closer stil , again approach path toward the phantom from behind, safely out of Meredith and Damons way. The phantoms heat was like a bonfire. Meredith and Damon were moving in tandem now, as smoothly as if they had rehearsed, dancing in and back, sometimes catching the phantom with a blow, more often spill through a curl of smoke or mist as the phantom transformed its parts from solid to airy shapes. A voice rang out. Impera te desistere. Mrs. Flowers leaned against the supporting arms of Matt and Alaric. But her eyes were straighten and her voice was steady. Power crackled in the air around her.The phantom slowed only slightly in its fight, perhaps no more than a one-half second behind in its thrusts and transformations. But this was seemly to make at least a little difference. More of Damons and Merediths blows landed, and they were able to dodge a few more of the phantoms.Was it enough, though? The phantom flinched when a punch hit home, and it bled horrible green goo where the stave cut it, but it was stil steady on its feet as Meredith and Damon hacked and choked in the smoke and stumbled away from the flames. The go up in Jealousys chest pulsed a steady dark red. Elena exhaled in foiling and immediately began to cough again. The phantom wasnt staying in one place long enough for Elena to get a good shot at grabbing the rose-heart.Meredith sliced at it with her fighting stave, and this time the stave slid through smoke, and the phantom grabbed the stave in one hand, cut Meredith toward Damon. Col iding, they both fel heavily to the ground, and the phantom, stil slightly hobbled by Mrs. Flowerss spel , strained toward them.Ive envied Meredith for her brains shouted Bonnie. Her face was smudged with smoke and tears, and she looked incredibly smal and fragile, but she was standing straight-backed and proud, yel ing at the top of her lungs. I know Il never be as good at school as she is, but thats okay. I cast my jealousy outThe phantoms rose dimmed to a dark pink for a routine, and it staggered ever so slightly. It glanced at Bonnie and hissed. It was only a tiny pause in the phantoms advance, but it was enough for Damon to spring to his feet. He stepped in front of Meredith, shielding her as she clambered up. Without eve looking at each other, Meredith and Damon began circling in opposite directions again. Ive been jealous that my friends have more money than I do Matt shouted, but I cast the jealousy outI envy the way Alaric very believed in something unproven, and turned out to be right Celia yel ed. But I cast it outIve envied Elenas clothes Bonnie cried. Im too short to look good in lots of things But I cast that outDamon kicked at the phantom, pul ing his smoldering leg back quickly. Meredith swung her stave. Mrs. Flowers chanted in Latin, and Alaric get together her, his low voice in counterpoint to hers, reinforcing her spel . Bonnie, Celia, and Matt kept shouting dredging up smal jealousies and hurts that they were probably usual y hardly aware of, casting them out to pepper the phantom with tiny blows. And for the first time, the phantom looked baffled. It swung its engineer slowly from one to another of its opponents Damon stalking toward it, fists raised Meredith, her stave swinging surely as she watched the phantom with a cool and considering gaze Alaric and Mrs. Flowers reciting strings of Latin words, hands lifted Bonnie, Matt, and Celia shouting confessions as if they were throwing rocks at it. Jealousys glassed eyes passed over Elena without real y seeming to notice her standing(a) stil and quiet among the entire hubbub, she was not a threat.This was the best chance Elena was issue to get. She nerved herself to move forward, then froze as the phantom turned toward her.Then, miraculously, Stefan was there. He grappled at the phantoms back, throwing one arm around its neck as the flames beat out at him. His shirt caught fire. The phantom, briefly, was pul ed backward past Elena, its torso toward her, unprotected.Without hesitation, Elena plunged her hand into the fire. For a moment, she barely felt the flames, just a gentle, almost cool touch against her hand as the flames flickered around her. Not so bad, she had a moment to think, and then she felt the pain.It was pure and agonizing, and dark fireworks of shock went off behind her eyes. She had to fight to overcome the almost irresistible instinct to pul her hand back out of the fire. Instead, she groped at the phantoms torso, searching for the cut Meredith had made just supra its rose. It was slippery and smooth, and her hand fumbled. Where is it?Where is it?Damon had th rown himself into the flames alongside Stefan, yanking at the phantoms arms and neck, property its torso clear for Elena, preventing the phantom from ripping free and throwing her across the room. Meredith hightail it at Jealousys side with her stave. Behind her, her friends voices rose in a babble out of confessions and spel s as they did their part to keep the phantom off counterbalance and disoriented.At last Elenas hand found the cut and she pushed inside. It was icy cold in the phantoms chest, and Elena yelped at the contrast the cold was excruciating after the heat, and the flames stil licked at her wrist and arm. The halt liquid inside the phantoms chest was so thick, it was like feeling through gelatin. Elena shoved and reached, and the phantom screamed with pain.It was a horrible healthful and, despite al that the phantom had done to her and her friends, Elena could not help flinching in sympathy. A moment later, Elenas hand closed on the roses stem and a thousand th orns pierced her burned flesh. Ignoring the pain, she pul ed the rose out of the freezing liquid, out of the fire, and staggered backward, away from the phantom.She didnt know what shed expected to happen, exactly. For the phantom to melt like the Wicked Witch of the West, perhaps, leaving nothing but a piss of vile greenish water. Instead, the phantom stared at her, its mouth open, its pointed, shining teeth on ful display. The tear in its chest had expanded, and fluid oozed rapidly, like an uncared-for faucet. The flames burned low and green where the liquid tracked down its body and dripped to the floor.Give it to me, Stefan said, appearing at Elenas side. He took the rose from her hand and ripped at its petals, now fading to a lighter pink, and scattered the petals into the fire burning up the sides of the garage. The phantom watched with a stunned expression, and gradual y its fulgurant fire thinned to smoke, its solid form slowly vaporizing. For a moment, a smoky, malevolen t image hung in the air before them, its eyes obstinate sul enly upon Elena. And then it was gone.