"Everyone, get out! Get out! Bloddeuwedd's after us and she'll kill anything in her way!" Elena shouted. It was the strangest thing. She hadn't meant to shout. Hadn't formulated the words, except perhaps in the deepest parts of her subconscious. But she did shout them into the already frenzied lobby and she heard the cry taken up by others.
What she didn't expect was that they would run, not out into the street, but down toward the cells. She ought to have, of course, but she hadn't. And then she felt herself and Sage and Damon going down, down the way they had last night...
But was it really the right way? Elena clamped one hand over the other and saw, judging by foxlight, that they needed to head off to the right.
"WHAT ARE THOSE CELLS TO THE RIGHT OF US? HOW DO WE GET THERE?" she shouted to the young vampire gentleman next to her.
"That's Isolation and Mentally Disturbed," the vampire gentleman shouted back. "Don't go that way."
"I have to! Do I need a key?"
"Yes, but - "
"Do you have a key?"
"Yes, but - "
"Give it to me now!"
"I can't do that," he wailed in a way that reminded her of Bonnie at her most difficult.
"All right. Sage!"
"Madame?"
"Send Talon back to peck this man's eyes out. He won't give me the key to Stefan's ward!"
"As good as done, Madame!"
"W-wait! I cha-changed my mind. Here's the key!" The vampire fished through a ring of keys and handed one to her.
It looked like the other keys on his ring. Too much alike, Elena's suspicious mind said.
"Sage!"
"Madame !"
"Can you wait till I pass with Saber? I want him to tear the you-know-what off this guy if he's lied to me."
"Of course, Madame!"
"W-w-w-wait," gasped the vampire. It was clear that he was completely terrified. "I may - may have given you the wrong key - in this - this light - "
"Give me the right key and tell me anything I need to know or I'll have the dog backtrack you and kill you," Elena said, and at that moment, she meant it.
"H-here." This time the key didn't look like a key. It was round, slightly convex, with a hole in the middle. Like a donut that's been sat on by a police officer, part of Elena's mind said, and began laughing hysterically.
Shut up, she told her mind sharply.
"Sage!"
"Madame?"
"Can Talon see the man I'm holding by the hair?" She had to go on tiptoe to grasp him.
"But of course, Madame!"
"Can she remember him? If I can't find Stefan I want her to show him to Saber so he can track him."
"Uh...ah...got it, Madame!"
A hand, dripping blood from the wrist, lifted a falcon high, at the same time as there was a serendipitous crash from the top of the building.
The vampire was almost sobbing. "Turn r-right at the n-next right. Use the k-key in the slot at h-head height to g-get into the corridor. There m-may be guards there. But...if - if you don't have a key to the individual cell you want - I'm sorry, but - "
"I do! I have the cell key and I know what to do after that! Thank you, you've been very kind and helpful."
Elena let go of the vampire's hair.
"Sage! Damon! Bonnie! Look for a corridor, locked, going right. Then don't get swept away. Sage, hold Bonnie and have Saber bark like crazy. Bonnie, hold on to Meredith in front of the guys. The corridor leads to Stefan!"
Elena never knew how much any one of her allies heard of this message, sent by voice and telepathy. But ahead she heard a sound that to her was like choirs of angels singing.
Saber was barking madly.
Elena would never have been able to stop by herself. She was in a raging river of people and the raging river was taking her right around the barrier made by four people, a falcon, and a mad-seeming dog.
But eight hands reached out to her as she was swept by - and a snarling, snapping muzzle leaped ahead of her to divide the crowd. Somehow she was being run into, bruised, cradled, shoved, and, grasped and grasping, forced all the way to the right wall.
But Sage was looking at that same wall in despair. "Madame, he tricked you! There is no keyhole here!"
Elena's throat went raw. She prepared to shout, "Saber, heel," and go after the vampire.
But then, just below her, Bonnie's voice said, "Of course there is. It's shaped like a circle."
And Elena remembered.
Smaller guards. Like imps or monkeys. Bonnie's size.
"Bonnie, take this! Shove it into the hole. Be careful! It's the only one we've got."
Sage immediately directed Saber to stand and snarl just ahead of Bonnie in the tunnel, to keep the stream of panicked demons and vampires from jostling her.
Carefully, solemnly, Bonnie took the large key, examined it, cocked her head, turned it in her hands - and placed it in the wall.
"Nothing's happening!"
"Try turning or pushing - "
Click.
The door slid open.
Elena and her group more or less fell into the corridor, while Saber stood between them and the herd pounding by, barking and snapping and leaping.
Elena, lying on the ground, legs entwined with who-knew-who-else's, cupped a hand around her ring.
The fox eyes shone straight ahead and a bit to the right.
They were shining into a cell ahead.
Chapter 41
"Stefan!" Elena screamed and knew that she sounded like a madwoman when she screamed it.
There was no answer.
She was running. Following the light. "Stefan! Stefan!"
An empty cell.
A yellowed mummy.
A pyramid of dust.