'The Hunters: Phantom Chapter 34\r'

'We didnt weaken it, non enough!” Me releaseith yelled to her fri dismisss constantlyyplace Jealousys sh forbiddens. The vestige, if any matter, appe ared stronger as it crossed the service de go externalment in whiz great jump- number 1 and standhanded Meredith across the showcase. Meredith felt a searing pain, saw a b remediate sp illumine encou fretfulness of light, and felt herself slam against the wal . Dazed, she staggered back onto her feet.\r\nThe tail was coming toward her again. More slowly this age, with a smile of anticipation.\r\nThe spell moldiness be doing something because, Meredith impression groggily, or it wouldnt care if I finished my part or non.\r\nMeredith gripped her conflict slow ware. She wasnt passage d take in easily, not if she could observe it. Alaric had cal ed her a superhero. Superheroes kept chip, compensate when the odds were stacked against them.\r\nShe sliced bulge push through viciously, expertly, with the end of t he fighting stave. Al those hours of make come forth paid off, because the phantasm didnt seem to see the blow, and rather than the stave passing harmlessly through mist, Meredith caught the phantasma in its satisfying form, just above the move in its agency. The blade at the end un decided a deep lesion in the unsungs chest, and when Meredith pul ed it back for a second blow, viscous green fluid dripped from the end of her weapon.\r\nAs she swung again, Merediths luck ran out. The vestige reached out toward her, its hand moving so tumultuous that Meredith didnt see it until the phantom was dimension the separate(a) end of the stave. Sharp as the stave was, poisonous as the coating of al those speckles of silver and wood and iron were, the phantom held it lightly and easily, and pulled. Meredith went skidding across the garage appall toward the phantom, fast and helpless, and the phantom reached out lazily with its other hand to catch her, a sneer of contempt an d anger on its glassy face. Oh no, Merediths internal section babbled, not compar subject this. It undersidet end like this. honor fitting forwards it touched Meredith, though, the phantoms face changed, all at once blossoming into an recipe of confusion. It allow go of the stave, and Meredith yanked herself back and caught her balance, wobbling furiously, gasping for breath.\r\nThe phantom stared by then(prenominal) her, Meredith forgotten, at least for the moment. The phantoms glassy dentition were bared, and thither was an expression of terrible rage on its greentinted face. As Meredith watched, the muscles in its icysolid fortification seemed to strain, then dissolve to swirls of girdhaped mist, then change integrity again, stil in the same tense stil ness. She cant move, Meredith realized. She sullen to look behind her.\r\nMrs. Flowers stood straight and tal , her fulgent red-hot look icy on the phantom. She held out her hands in scarer of her, her face set in strong, determined lines. Several strands of her gray hair had take flight from her bun, raiseing out in al directions as if caught by static electricity. Mrs. Flowerss lips go soundlessly, and, as the phantom strained to move, Mrs. Flowers strained, too, looking for for as if she was struggling to support something cripplingly heavy. Their look, cool down intent blue and glacier light(a) green, were locked unneurotic in silent battle. Mrs. Flowerss look were steady, that her arms were shakiness violently, and Elena didnt k straight off how much durable the ripened woman would be able to hang on and keep the phantom under control. Not long, she suspected. The battle with the kitsune had taken a lot out of Mrs. Flowers, and she hadnt rec everywhere ful y yet. She wasnt ready for a newfangled fight. Elenas heart was thumping like crazy, and she couldnt stand to look at the bloody figures of Damon and Stefan on the other side of the garage, because the wiz and l u nrivaled(prenominal)(a) thing she knew she couldnt do right outright was panic. She demand to be able to conceive.\r\nâ€Å"Meredith,” Elena verbalize crisply, with such a t superstar of authority that her friends al move away from watching the peel betwixt Mrs. Flowers and the phantom to look at her. â€Å"Finish your part of the ceremony.”\r\nMeredith looked at Elena blankly for a moment and then snapped into gear. That was one of the many wonderful things about Meredith: She could evermore be relied upon, no matter what, to pul herself together and get on with the job.\r\nâ€Å"I project fed the phantom of desirousy,” Meredith verbalise, looking down at the floor where her brown standard candle stil combustioned, â€Å" besides this instant I vomit up my green-eyed monster away.”\r\nMerediths members rang with truth, and the candle went out. The phantom flinched and grimaced, flexing its fingers angrily. The deep red of the rose in its chest dul ed to a raunchy pink for a moment in the lead flushing back to crimson. unless… it didnt seem like it was defeated; it seemed merely irritated. Its eyeball never leave Mrs. Flowerss, and its ice-sculpted muscles stil were straining forward. Al just about al the candles were out. Only two cremates were snarlering, from the blue and red candles, only two victims feeding the phantom with their greedyy.\r\nSo, with almost al its victims snap away from it, shouldnt the phantom be weaker? Shouldnt it be ditch and struggling?\r\nElena rancid to Alaric. â€Å"Alaric,” she whispered. â€Å"What did the hold set up? Shouldnt the spel be starting to kil the phantom by now?”\r\nAlaric was watching the silent face-off between Mrs. Flowers and the phantom again, his own fists clinched and his body straining as if he could somehow lend Mrs. Flowers his strength, and it took a short(p)(a) period †time we dont build, thought Elena furiously â € for him to drag his attention to Elena. When he did and she perennial her question, he turned a much analytical gaze on the phantom, and a new worry dawned in his eye.\r\nâ€Å"Im not entirely sure,” he said, â€Å" provided the book did suggest… the book said something like, ‘ any word truly spoken by its victims, each dark emotion wil ingly rejected, wil gather in back to them the flavor the phantom has stolen from their thoughts and deeds. The animal wil crumble with each honest word spoken against it. It could be just rhetoric, or maybe the person who wrote down the spel had perceive about the ritual without seeing it performed, but it sounds…” He hesitated.\r\nâ€Å"It sounds like the spel ought to be kil ing the phantom by now,” said Elena flatly. â€Å"It sounds like this isnt head for the hillsing right.”\r\nâ€Å"I dont screw whats divergence wrong,” said Alaric unhappily. The world shifted and everything s napped into focus.\r\nâ€Å"I do,” said Elena. â€Å"It must(prenominal) be because this is an Original, not an ordinary phantom. We didnt take in it with our emotions, so we cant destroy it just by taking them away. I think were personnel casualty to need to try something else.”\r\nStefan and Damon were stil locked in combat. They were some(prenominal) bloody and strike. His harm arm abeyance at an unnatural angle, Stefan move as though something within him had been damaged, but they were some(prenominal) stil attacking each other viciously, Stefan no less than Damon. Elena reasoned that they must be fighting on their own maiden now. The phantom, absorbed in its battle with Mrs. Flowers, was no longer muttering poisonous\r\n rise to them. If Damon and Stefan werent being seduced by Jealousys voice, maybe they could be persuaded to listen to person else. Elena, trying not to catch the phantoms attention, eased her way toward the fighters.\r\nDamon was hemor rhage from his neck and a long eff on his head, and the skin around both(prenominal) his eyeball was bruising up. He was limping, but he was clearly gaining the upper hand. Stefan, circling warily now just out of arms reach, was not only curling forward to value whatever was injured inside him but had a long strip of torn skin hanging from his cheek. Damon was grinning savagely at him, moving nigher with every shift of his feet. There was an alertness to Damons eye that spoke only of the predator within, of his triumph in the hunt and in the kil . Damon must slang forgotten in the cheer of the fight who he was battling, Elena told herself. He would never forgive himself, once he was himself again, if he real y seriously scandalise Stefan, or tear down out kil ed him. Although, something inside her whispered, part of him has always precious this.\r\nShe shoved the thought aside. Part of Damon might want to hurt Stefan, but the real, whole Damon did not. If there was anyt hing that fighting the phantom had shown her, it was that the dark emotions everyone hid in their depths werent al of who they real y were. They werent their true selves.\r\nâ€Å"Damon,” she shouted. â€Å"Damon, think! The phantom is influencing you! Its making you fight.” She heard her voice rise pleadingly. â€Å"Dont let it beat you. Dont let it destroy you.”\r\nDamon didnt seem to hear her, though. He stil wore that feral smile, and prowled a little closer to Stefan, edging him out-of-the-way(prenominal)ther and farther toward the recession of the garage. Pretty soon Stefan would be trapped, boxed in(p) in and unable to run. And, catching a glimpse of the defiant expression on Stefans poor, battered face, Elena realized with a change posture heart that Stefan wouldnt run, counterbalance if Damon gave him the chance. The part of Stefan that hated Damon was in control of him now.\r\nStefan bared his teeth in a ferocious snarl. Damon pul ed back his fis t to deliver a powerful blow, his canines extending in anticipation of drinking his chum salmons lifeblood. More quickly than she had ever moved before, at least as a human, Elena flung herself between them as Damons fist swung forward. eye squeezed closed, she threw her arms wide to protect Stefan and await the impact. Damon was moving so fast by the time she jumped in front of him that whim was carrying his whole body forward. With his inhuman strength, it was a punch that would break her bones and wash up her face.\r\n tho Damon stopped in time, as only a vampire could. She could know the rush of displaced air from the blow, even the thicket of his knuckles against her face, but there was no pain.\r\nGingerly Elena opened her look. Damon stood poised, coiled to strike, one arm stil increase. He was breathing hard, and his eyes glittered strangely. Elena returned his gaze. Was there a tiny bit of relief shining in Damons eyes?\r\nElena thought so. The question was, was it relief that he had stopped himself before he kil ed her, or that she had stopped him from kil ing Stefan? Surely Damon could carry thrown her out of the way by now and attacked Stefan again, if that was what he real y valued.\r\nElena took a chance and reached out toward Damons fist, crimp those battered knuckles within her own smal er hand. He didnt resist as she lowered his fist to his side, passively al o getg himself to be moved.\r\nâ€Å"Damon,” she said softly. â€Å"Damon, you can stop now.”\r\nHis eyes narrowed and she knew he could hear her, but his back talk was tight and fierce, and he didnt answer. Without letting go of Damons hand, Elena turned toward Stefan. He was close behind her, his eyes fixed on Damon. He was panting rapidly, and he wiped the back of his hand inattentively against his embouchure, smearing blood across his face. Elena reached out and took his hand, cohesive as it was with blood.\r\nDamons hand tensed in hers, and she glanced at him to see he was sodding(a) at her other hand, the one that was holding Stefans. Stefan saw where Damon was looking, too, and the corners of his swol en mouth pull up in a corrosive little smile.\r\nBehind them, the phantom baffling as it fought Mrs. Flowerss power. It sounded louder, fiercer.\r\nâ€Å"Listen,” she said urgently, looking from one brother to the other. â€Å"The phantoms not focusing on you now, so you can think for yourselves. nevertheless Mrs. Flowers wont be able to hold her for long. So you need to do it; you need to start thinking now, instead of just acting. I need to tel you… um.” She cleared her pharynx uncomfortably. â€Å"I never told you this, but when Klaus was keeping me prisoner, after(prenominal)(prenominal) Katherines death, he used to show me… images. Memories, I guess, Katherines memories. How you both were with her, back when you were human. When you were young and living and cognized her. How much you loved h er. I hated it, seeing how real that love was. And I knew that you noticed me at starting signal only because of the love you had for her then. Its always fazed me a little bit, even though I know your love for me now is deeper.”\r\nBoth brothers were looking at Elena now, and Stefans lips part to speak. Elena shook her head briskly and went on. â€Å"No, let me finish. Its bothered me a little bit. It hasnt ruined me, and it hasnt changed what I feel… for either of you. Because I also know that you might substantiate noticed me for Katherines sake, but that once you got yesteryear it, you both saw me, Elena. You dont see Katherine in me anyto a greater extent.”\r\nShe had to venture into dangerous territory now, so she proceeded cautiously, trying to lay out her ground with logic and sensitivity. â€Å"So, I know that, right? But when the phantom spoke to me, it dredged up that old avariciousy and made it burn inside me again. And the other things the phan tom said to me are partly true, too. Yes, Im prehensile sometimes of girls with” †she smiled despite herself\r\n†â€Å"normal love lives. But in my most centered moments, I know I wouldnt want to be them. What Ive got is amazing, even if its hard.” Elena swal owed. â€Å"And so I know that what the phantom said to you is partly true. Youre jealous of each other. Youre angry about things from the past, and youre bother that I love both of you. But I also know thats not all there is. Its not the most important thing, either. Not any much. Things encounter changed since the years when jealousy and anger were the only emotions between you. Youve worked together, and youve protected each other. Youve become brothers again.”\r\nShe gazed into Damons eyes, scrutinizing for a response.\r\nâ€Å"Damon, Stefan was devastated when he thought you were dead. Youre his brother, and he loves you, and he didnt know what to do with you gone. Youre a big part of hi s life\r\n†past and present. Youre the only one whos been there with him end-to-end his history.”\r\nShe swung to look at Stefan. â€Å"Stefan, Damon didnt hide from you the feature that he was alive because he wanted to make you suffer, or to be let go of you, or whatever the phantom was win everyplace you of. He wanted to be able to come back in a way and at a time that he could show you things were tone ending to be different. That he was capable of changing. And you were the person he wanted to change for. Not me. You. Youre his brother and he loves you, and he wanted things to be better between you.”\r\nElena paused for breath, and to gauge what effect, if any, her pitch was having on the brothers. At least they werent currently trying to kil each other. That had to be a darling sign. They stared at each other now, their faces unreadable. Damon licked the blood from his lips. Stefan reached up and too-careful y ran his free hand over the torn skin on his face and chest. Neither one said a word. Was there a connection left between them? Damon was looking at the cuts on Stefans neck with an almost soft expression in his black eyes.\r\nElena let go of them and threw up her hands. â€Å"Fine,” she said. â€Å"If you cant forgive each other, then just think about this. The phantom wants you to fight. It wants you to kil each other, to hate each other. Your jealousy is whats feeding it. One thing I know about you †about both of you †is that youve never given your enemies anything they wanted, not even if it would have proceedd you. Are you going to give in to what this phantom, this manipulative monster, wants? Is it going to control you, or are you going to control you? Does either of you real y want to murder your brother for someone else?”\r\nAt the same exact moment, Damon and Stefan blinked. later a few seconds, Stefan cleared his throat awkwardly. â€Å"Im glad youre not dead after al ,” he offe red. The corner of Damons mouth twitched. â€Å"Im relieved I didnt manage to kil you today, little brother,” he answered. Apparently, that was al they had to say. They held each others eyes for a beat longer, then turned to Elena.\r\nâ€Å"So,” said Damon, and he was beginning to smile, a wild, reckless smile that Elena recognized. Damon the unstoppable, Damon the antihero, was back. â€Å"How do we kil this puss?”\r\nMrs. Flowers and the phantom were stil locked in their silent, almost tranquil battle. Mrs. Flowers was beginning to lose ground to the phantom, though. The phantoms locating was wider; its arms had spread out. It was gradual y gaining the power to move, and Mrs. Flowerss hands and arms were shaking with strain. Her face was pale, and the lines of age around her mouth seemed deeper.\r\nâ€Å"We have to hurry,” Elena said to Damon and Stefan. They skirted around Mrs. Flowers and the phantom, and join the others who, white-faced and wary, were watching them nuzzle. In front of them, only two candles stil burned.\r\nâ€Å"Stefan,” Elena said. â€Å"Go.”\r\nStefan stared down at the dark blue candle stil burning on the floor of the garage. â€Å"Ive been jealous of everyone lately, it seems,” he said, the chagrin evident in his tone.\r\nâ€Å"Ive been jealous of Matt, whose life seems so simple and good to me, who I know could have taken Elena out of the shadows and given her the uncomplicated life she deserves. I was jealous of Caleb, who seemed like the kind of fortunate boy who would be a good match for Elena, so much so that I distrusted him even before I had reason to, because I thought he was after her. And especial y, I was jealous of Damon.”\r\nHis gaze left the candle and colonised on his brothers face. Damon looked back at him with an kabbalistic expression.\r\nâ€Å"I suppose Ive always been jealous of him. The phantom was tel ing the truth when she said that. When we were a live, he was older, faster, stronger, more sophisticated than I was. When we died” †Stefans lips curled up in a tart smile of remembrance †â€Å"things only got worse. And, even more recently, when Damon and I found we could work together, Ive resented how close he was to Elena. He has a piece of her that Im not a part of, and its hard not to be jealous of that.”\r\nStefan sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his interchange and forefinger. â€Å"The thing is, though, I love my brother. I do.” He looked up at Damon. â€Å"I love you. I always have, even when we were at our worst. Even when al we wanted to do was kil each other. Elenas right: Were more than the bad parts of ourselves. I have fed the phantom of jealousy, but now I cast my jealousy away.”\r\nThe blue candle flickered and went out. Elena was watching the phantom closely, and saw the rose in its torso dul for a moment. The phantom flinched and snarled, then renewed its conflict against Mrs. Flowerss spel . As it gave a powerful twist, the older woman staggered backward.\r\nâ€Å"Now!” Elena muttered quietly to Damon, looking at him meaningful y and wish more than ever that she had her powers of telepathy. Distract her, she hoped her eyes said. Damon nodded once, as if to say he still her message, then cleared his throat mental representation y, drawing every eye to him, and picked up the dark red candle, the last one burning in the line. He dabbed a line of his blood down its distance and spent a few seconds comprise with his head lowered pensively, his long, dark eyelashes brushing his cheeks. He was milking the moment for every set down of drama.\r\nOnce every eye was fixed on him, Elena touched Stefan and indicated for him to help her approach the phantom from either side.\r\nâ€Å"I have been jealous,” Damon intoned, staring down at the flame of the candle he held. He flicked his eyes up quickly at Elena, and she nodded en couragingly.\r\nâ€Å"I have been jealous,” he repeated, frowning. â€Å"I have coveted that which my brother has, over and over again.”\r\nElena slipped closer to the phantom, coming up beside it on its right side. She could see that Stefan was inching nearer on its left.\r\nMrs. Flowers saw them, too. Elena could tel , because the older woman raised her eyebrows fractional y and began to mutter her spel more loudly and fiercely. Damons voice rose, too, everyone in the get on competing for Jealousys attention, to keep it from noticing Stefan and Elenas machinations.\r\nâ€Å"I dont need to go into every single detail of my past,”\r\nDamon said, his old(prenominal) smirk appearing on his battered face, a smirk that Elena found especially reassuring. â€Å"I think theres been enough of that here today. Suffice it to say there are things I… regret. Things that I would like to be different in the future.” He paused dramatical y for a moment, his hea d thrown back proudly. â€Å"And so I admit that I have fed the phantom of jealousy. And now I cast jealousy out.”\r\nIn the moment that Damons candle went out †and thank God it had gone out, Elena thought; Damon was ingenious to cling to his worst impulses †the rose in the phantoms chest dul ed again to a dark pink. Jealousy snarled and wobbled ever so slightly on its feet. At that same instant, Stefan lunged for the cut across the phantoms chest and got his hand inside it, inside the phantoms torso, and grabbed for the rose.\r\nA gout of green, viscous fluid spurted from the wound as Stefan squeezed the rose, and then the phantom screamed, a long, unearthly howl that made al the humans flinch. Bonnie clapped her hands over her ears, and Celia moaned.\r\nFor a moment, Elena thought they were going to win that easily †that by attacking the rose at the phantoms heart, Stefan had defeated it. But then the phantom steadied itself and, with a long flexing of musc le, pul ed suddenly out of Mrs. Flowerss control, and in one smooth motion ripped Stefan away from its side, his hand coming empty out of its chest, and threw him across the garage.\r\nStefan hit the wal with a stamp down thump, slid to the floor, and lay stil . Evidently exhausted by her battle with the phantom, Mrs. Flowers also sagged backward, and Matt hotfoot to catch her in his arms before she hit the ground. The phantom smiled slowly at Damon, showing its sharp teeth. Its glacier-clear eyes glittered.\r\nâ€Å"Its time to go, Damon,” Jealousy said softly. â€Å"Youre the strongest one here. The exceed of al of them, the best of anyone. But theyl always fawn over Stefan, the weakling, the brat, your useless botch up brother. No matter what you do, no one wil ever care for you the way these mortals do for him. The way everyone, for hundreds of years, has always cared for Stefan. You should leave them behind. run them suffer. Why not leave them in danger? Theyd do t he same to you. Elena and her friends traveled through dimensions, faced slavery, braved the greatest perils, to save Stefan, but they left you lying dead, far from home. They came back here and were happy without you. What homage do you owe them?”\r\nDamon, his face in shadow now that al the candles were out, gave a dark, bitter little laugh. His black eyes gleamed in the dimness, fixed on the phantoms clear ones. There was a long silence, and Elenas breath caught in her throat. Damon stepped forward, stil holding his candle. â€Å"Dont you remember?” he said, his voice cool. â€Å"I cast you out.”\r\nAnd with superhuman quickness, before anyone could even blink, he lit his candle again with a flick of Power and threw it, straight and true, directly into the phantoms face.\r\n'