When he opened his door and saw Elena, James's face crumpled, just for a fraction of a second, and he stepped backward, as if he was considering closing the door in her face. Then he seemed to think better of it, and he opened it wider, his face creasing into its familiar smile.

"Why, Elena," he said, "My dear, I hardly expected a visitor at this hour. I'm afraid this isn't the best time." He cleared his throat. "I'd be delighted to see you at school, during office hours. Mondays and Fridays, remember?

Now, if you'l excuse me." And, stil smiling gently, he shuffled forward and did try to close the door in her face.

But Elena swung her hand up and stopped him. "Wait," she said. "James, I know you didn't want to talk to me about the pins, but it's important. I need to find out more about the Vitale Society."

His bright black eyes glanced toward her and away, as if embarrassed. "Yes, Well," he said, "the problem is of course that unchaperoned solo visits from a student - any student, you understand, my dear, no reflection on you personal y - to a professor's home are, er, frowned upon.

The wicked world we live in, you know," and, with a soft chuckle, he pushed firmly against the door. "There are times and places."

Elena pushed back. "I don't believe for a minute that you're trying to make me go away because my visit is inappropriate," she said flatly. "You can't get rid of me that easily. People are in danger, James.

"I know you and my parents were part of the Vitale Society," Elena continued doggedly. "I need you to tel me whatever it is that you've been hiding about those days. I think the Vitale is tied to the murders and disappearances on campus, and we have to stop it. You're my only lead at this point, James." He hesitated, his eyes watering with emotion, and Elena fixed him with her gaze. "More people are going to die," she said harshly, "but you might be able to save them. Wil you?"

James visibly wavered and then seemed to give in al at once, his shoulders dropping. "I don't know if anything I can tel you wil help. I don't know anything about the murders.

But you'd better come in," he said, and led the way down the hal and through his house. The kitchen was shining clean, with spotless white surfaces. Copper pots, woven baskets, and cheery red dishcloths and towels hung from hooks and were arranged on top of cupboards. Framed prints of fruits and vegetables hung on the wal s at intervals.

James sat her down at the table, then busied himself with making her a cup of tea.

Elena waited patiently until he final y settled across from her, with cups of tea in front of them both. "Milk?" he asked fussily, handing her the jug, without meeting her eyes.

"Sugar?"

"Thank you," Elena said. Then she leaned across the table and placed her hand on his, keeping it there until he raised his eyes to look at her. "Tel me," she said simply.

"I don't know anything about the murders," James said again. "Believe me, I wouldn't have kept this secret if I thought anyone was in danger from it." Elena nodded. "I know you wouldn't," she said. "Even if there isn't a connection, if the secret is about my parents, I deserve to know," she told him.

James sighed, a long breathy sound. "This was al a long time ago, you understand," he said. "We were young and a bit naive. The Vitale Society was a force for good, back then. We worshipped natural spirits and drew our energy from the sacred Earth. We were a positive force in the community, interested principal y in love and peace and creativity. We served others. I hear that the Vitale Society has changed since those days, that darker elements have taken it over. But I don't know much about them now. I haven't been involved with the Vitale for years, not since the events I am about to recount to you."

Elena sipped her tea and waited. James's eyes flew to her face, almost shyly, then fixed back on the table. "One day," he said slowly, "a strange man came to one of our secret meetings. He was - " James closed his eyes and shivered. "I had never seen a being of such pure power, or one who radiated such a feeling of peace and love. We, al of us, had no doubt that we were in the presence of an angel. He cal ed himself a Guardian." Involuntarily, Elena sucked a breath through her teeth, hissing. James's eyes snapped open, and he gave her a long look. "You know them?" At her nod, he shrugged a little. "Well, you can imagine how he affected us."

"What did the Guardian want?" Elena asked, her stomach dropping. She had met Guardians, and she hadn't liked them. It was Guardians who had, coldly and efficiently, refused to bring Damon back to life when he had died in the Dark Dimension. And it was Guardians who had caused the car accident that kil ed her parents in an attempt to kil Elena so that they could recruit her to their ranks. Al the Guardians she'd met were female, though; she hadn't even known there were male Guardians as Well.

Elena knew that, lovely as the Guardians appeared to be, they were not angels, were not on the side of Good or, for that matter, the side of Evil. They just believed in Order.

They could be very dangerous.

James looked at her briefly, then fiddled with the tea cup and napkin in front of him. "Would you like a scone?" he asked. She shook her head and stared at him, and he sighed again. "You have to understand that your parents were very young. Idealistic."

Elena had the sinking feeling that she was going to find out something deeply unpleasant. "Go on," she said.

Instead of continuing, though, James folded his napkin into tiny, precise squares, smal er and smal er, until Elena cleared her throat. Then he began again. "The Guardian told us that there was a need for a new kind of Guardian.

One who would be a mortal, on Earth, and who would possess special powers that she would need to maintain the balance between good and evil supernatural forces on Earth. Over the course of his visit, Elizabeth and Thomas, who were young and bril iant and good and deeply in love, and who had bright futures ahead of them, were chosen to be the parents of this mortal Guardian." He let the napkin unfold itself in his hands and looked at Elena meaningful y. It took her a moment to catch on.

"Me? Are you kidding? I'm not - " She shut her mouth. "I have enough problems," she said flatly. She paused as something he said sank in. "Wait, why do you think my parents were being naive?" she asked sharply. "What did they do?"

James drank a swal ow of tea. "Frankly, I think I need a little something in this before I continue," he said. "I've kept this secret for a long time, and I stil have to tel you the worst part." He got up and rummaged around in one of the cupboards, eventual y pul ing out a smal bottle ful of amber liquid. He held it out to Elena questioningly, but she shook her head. She was pretty certain she would need her head clear for the rest of this conversation. He poured a generous amount into his own cup.

"So," he said, sitting down again. Elena could tel that he was stil anxious, but also that he was beginning to enjoy tel ing the story. He was a natural gossip - the way he taught history was as gossip about the past - and this was even more familiar for him, because it was gossip about Elena's parents, people they both had known. "Thomas and Elizabeth were both terrifical y flattered, of course."

"And..." Elena prompted.

James laced his fingers across his stomach and watched her, his eyes shadowed. "They agreed that, when the child was twelve years old, they would give her up. The Guardians would take her away, and they would never see her again."

Elena was suddenly very cold. Her parents had raised her intending to give her away? She felt like al her childhood memories were shattering. In an instant, James was at her side. "Breathe," he said gently.

Gasping, Elena shut her eyes and concentrated on inhaling and exhaling deep breaths. That her parents, her beloved parents, had taken her on as some kind of temporary project, was devastating. She had never doubted their love until now.

She had to know the whole truth.

"Go on."

"Honestly, that was the end of my friendship with your parents, and the end of my involvement with the Vitale Society," James said, taking another long drink of his whiskey-laced tea. "I couldn't believe that no one else in the Society saw the problem with raising a child to the cusp of adolescence and then giving her up forever, and I couldn't believe that your parents - who I knew to be loving, intel igent people - would agree to such a plan. We graduated and went our separate ways, and I didn't hear from your parents again for more than twelve years."

"You heard from them then?" Elena asked quietly.

"Your father cal ed me. The Guardians had contacted them, ready to take you away. But Thomas and Elizabeth wouldn't let you go." James smiled sadly. "They loved you too much. They didn't think you were ready to leave home -

you were only a child. They realized that they had agreed too quickly to the Guardians' plan, that they didn't real y know what was in store for you, and that they couldn't let their daughter go without knowing for certain that it was the best thing for her. So Thomas asked for my help protecting you. They knew I had dabbled in sorcery when I was in col ege" - he waved his hand modestly when Elena looked up at him - "only smal magics, and I had mostly given them up by then. But he and Elizabeth were desperate. So I gathered what knowledge I could, intending to help them." He paused, and a gloom settled over his face.

"Unfortunately, I was too late. A few days after our conversation, before I even set out for Fel 's Church, your parents were both kil ed in a car accident. I checked up on you over the years, but it didn't seem like the Guardians had gotten their hands on you. And now, here you are. I don't think it's a coincidence."

"The Guardians kil ed my parents," Elena said dul y. "I knew it, but I didn't know... I thought it was an accident." She was struggling to wrap her mind around the secrets of her childhood. At least in the end her parents hadn't been able to give her away. They had loved her, as she had thought.

"They tend to get what they want," James said.

"Why didn't they take me then?" Elena asked.

James shook his head. "I don't know. But I think there's a reason you're at Dalcrest now, where it began for you and for your parents. I think that some kind of task wil arise here, and you'l come into your Powers."

"A task?" Elena asked. "But I had Powers once, and the Guardians took them away." They had mercilessly stripped her of her Wings and al her abilities. Were they going to return them when the time was right?

James sighed and shrugged helplessly. "Plans sometimes have curious ways of presenting themselves, even those that are fated from the start," he said. "Maybe these disappearances are the first sign of it. I don't know, though. As I told the class, Dalcrest is the hub of a lot of paranormal activity. I tend to think that, when your task presents itself, you'l know."

"But I'm not..." Elena gulped. "I don't understand what this al means. I just want to be a normal girl. I thought I could now. Here."

James reached across the table and patted her hand, his eyes deep Wells of sympathy. "I'm so sorry, my dear," he said. "I didn't want to be the one to burden you with this. But I wil give you any help I can. Thomas and Elizabeth would have wanted that."

Elena felt like she couldn't breathe. She had to get out of this cozy kitchen, away from James's avid, concerned eyes. "Thank you," she said, hurriedly pushing her chair away from the table and getting up. "I have to go now, though. I do appreciate your tel ing me al this, but I need to think."

He fussed around her al the way to the front door, clearly unsure of whether to let her go, and Elena was almost ready to scream by the time she reached the porch.

"Thank you," she said again. "Good-bye." She walked quickly away without looking back, her shoes clacking against the cement of the sidewalk. When she was out of sight of James's house, Damon slipped from the shadows to join her. Elena held her head high, blinking away the tears that had pooled in her eyes. For now, this secret would be hers.
    
 

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