The Hunters: Moonsong Chapter Seven

It would convey been difficult to find a group of settlers less suited to building a brand-new colonization than the one cytosine and five men who sailed up the river from the Chesapeake Bay in 1607 and founded Jamestown, professor Campbel lectured from the front of Elenas class. While there were a couple of carpenters, a mason, a blacksmith, and maybe a dozen laborers among them, they were far prohibitednumbered by the self-proclaimed gentlemen who made up almost half the party.He paused and smiled sardonical y. Gentlemen in this case signifies men with come in a profession or trade. some of them were lazy, idle men who had joined the London Companys expedition in the hope of making a profit without realizing how much work founding a colony in the New World was real y going to entail. The settlers get in the spring, and by the end of September, half of them were dead. By January, when Captain Newport returned with supplies and more colonists, moreover thirty-eight of the or iginal settlers remained.Lazy and clueless, Elena wrote neatly in her notebook.Dead in less than a year.History of the South was her very get-go class, and col ege was already proving to be an eye-opening experience. Her high school teachers had always stressed courage and enterprise when they talked or so Virginias early settlers, not haplessness.On Thursday, wel talk about the legend of tin can Smith and Pocahontas. Were going to discuss the facts and how they differ from Smiths own account, as he had a tendency toward self-promotion, Professor Campbel announced.The reading assignment is in the syl abus, so occupy come prepared for a lively discussion next clock. He was a plump, energetic little man, whose smal black eyes swept the class and landed unerringly on Elena as he added, Elena Gilbert? Please stay after class for a moment. Id same(p) to speak with you.She had time to wonder, nervously, how he knew which of his students she was as the rest of the class straggled out of the room, a few stopping to ask him questions. She hadnt spoken up during his lecture, and there were about fifty students in the class.As the oddment of her classmates disappeared out the door, she approached his desk.Elena Gilbert, he said avuncularly, his bright eyes searching hers. I do apologize for taking up your time. entirely when I heard your name, I had to ask. He paused, and Elena dutiful y replied, Had to ask what, Professor?I know the name Gilbert, you see, he said, and the more I odor at you, the more you incite me of someone two someones who were once very dear friends of mine.Could you possibly be the daughter of Elizabeth Morrow and Thomas Gilbert?Yes, I am, said Elena slowly. She ought to have expected that she talent meet someone who knew her parents here at Dalcrest, merely it felt weird to hear their names, al the same.Ah He laced his fingers across his stomach and gave her a satisfied smile. You look so much wish well Elizabeth. It startled me whe n you came into the room. But theres a touch of Thomas in you, too, make no mistake about that.Something about your expression, I think. Seeing you takes me right back to my own days as an undergraduate. She was a belovedly girl, your mother, just lovely.You went to school here with my parents? Elena asked.I certainly did. Professor Campbel s smal black eyes widened. They were two of my best friends here. Two of the best friends I ever had. We preoccupied track of each other over the years, Im afraid, scarce I heard about the accident. He unlaced his fingers and hesitantly touched her arm. Im so sorry.Thank you. Elena bit her lip. They never talked much about their col ege years. possibly as I got older, they would have Her voice trailed off, and she realized with dismay that her eyes had fil ed with tears.Oh, my dear, I didnt mean to upset you. Professor Campbel patted his jacket pockets. And Ive never got a tissue when I need one. Oh, please dont cry. His comical expression of distress made Elena give him a watery-eyed smile, and he relaxed and smiled in return. There, thats better, he said. You know, if youd like to hear more about your parents and what they were like back then, Id be happy to tel you about them. Ive got al kinds of stories.Real y? Elena said hopeful y. She felt a flicker of excitement. Aunt Judith talked with Elena about her mother sometimes, but the memories she shared were mostly from their childhood. And Elena real y didnt know much about her fathers past at al hed been an only child and his parents were dead.Certainly, certainly, Professor Campbel said cheerful y. Come to my office hours, and Il tel you al about our hijinks back in the old days. Im there all Monday and Friday from three to five, and Il put out a welcome mat for you. Metaphorical y speaking, of course. Serve you some of the horrible department coffee.Thank you, Professor Campbel , Elena said. Id love that.Cal me James, he said. Its nothing at al . Anything I can d o to make you feel at home here at Dalcrest. He cocked his channel to one side and looked at her quizzical y, his eyes as bright and curious as a smal animals. After al , as the daughter of Elizabeth and Thomas, you must be a very special girl.The big black crow outside the open lecture-room window paced back and forth, clenching and unclenching its powerful talons around the branch on which it was perched.Damon motivationed to transform back into his vampire self, climb through the window, and have a quick but effective interrogation session with that professor.But Elena wouldnt like that.She was so naive, dammit.Yes, yes, she was his lovely, bril iant, clever princess, but she was ridiculously naive, too they al were. Damon irritably preened his ruffled feathers back into iridescent sleekness. They were just so young. At this point, Damon was able to look back and say that no one learned anything in life, not for her first hundred years or so. You had to be immortal, real y, to have the time to learn to look out for yourself properly.Take Elena, gazing so trustful y at her professor. After al shed been through, al shed seen, she was so easy to lul into complacency al the man had to do was dangle the promise of information about her parents in front of her, and shed happily trot off to meet him in his office whenever he suggested. Sentimental ninny. What could the man possibly tel her that would be of any real importance? Nothing could bring her parents back.The professor wasnt a danger, most likely. Damon had probed him with his Power, felt nothing but the flickering of a human mind, no dark surge of answering Power coming from the little man, no sWellof disturbing or violent emotion.But he couldnt be sure, could he? Damons Power couldnt detect every monster, couldnt predict every twist of the human heart.But the real problem here was Elena. Shed forgotten, clearly, that shed lost al her Power, that the Guardians had stripped her back to being just a vul nerable, fragile mortal girl again. She thought, wrongly, that she could protect herself.They were al like that. Damon had been infuriated at first to slowly realize that he was starting to feel like al of them were his humans. Not just his lovely Elena and the little redbird, but all of them, the witch Mrs. Flowers and the hunting watch and that meathead of a boy as Well. Those last two didnt even like him, but he felt compel ed to keep an eye on them, to prevent them from damaging themselves through their innate stupidity.Damon wasnt the one who wanted to be here. No, the allows al join hands and dance off to further our educations together nous wasnt his, and hed treated it with the proper scorn. He wasnt Stefan. He wasnt going to waste his time pretending to be one of the mortal children.But he had found, to his dismay, that he didnt want to lose them, either.It was embarrassing. Vampires were not pack animals, not like humans. He wasnt supposed to care what happened to them. These children should be prey, and nothing more.But being dead and coming back, chip the jealousy phantom and letting go of the sick envy and misery that had held him captive ever since he was a human, had changed Damon. With that hard bal of hate gone from the nerve of his chest, where it had lived for so long, he found himself feeling lighter. Almost as if he cared.Embarrassing or not, it felt surprisingly comfortable, having this connection to the little group of humans. Hed have died again rather than admit it aloud, though.He clacked his beak a few times as Elena said good-bye to her professor and left the classroom. Then Damon paste his wings and flapped down to a tree next to the buildings entrance.Nearby, a thin young man was posting a flyer with a girls picture on another tree, and Damon flew over to get a closer look. Missing Student, the top of the flyer said, and below the picture were details of a nighttime disappearance no clues, no leads, no evidence, no idea w here nineteen-year-old Taylor Harrison might be.Suspicion of foul play. The promise of a reward from her anxious family for information leading to her safe return.Damon let out a rough caw. There was something wrong here. Hed known it already had felt something a little off about this campus as soon as hed arrived two days ago, although he hadnt been able to quite put his finger on it. Why else would he have been so worried about his princess?Elena came out of the building and started across the quad, tucking her long golden hair behind her ears, oblivious to the black crow that swooped from tree to tree above her. Damon was going to find out what was going on here, and he was going to do it before whatever it was touched any of his humans.Especial y Elena.