Drake Sisters 02 - The Twilight Before Christmas

something.”
    Hannah rol ed her eyes. “There’s my point exactly, Kate. Men always try bossing women around. It’s their nature, they can’t help themselves. We know the thing in the fog is a male, and I’l bet he’s seriously upset with a woman.”
    They al started into the kitchen. Sarah and Kate helped steady Hannah. “Actual y, I felt guilt and sorrow and rage coming from him,” Kate said. “I could feel the connection, but he tossed it away because he feels he doesn’t deserve forgiveness. Something terrible happened, and he believes he’s to blame for it.”
    “Why is he causing terrible things to happen now?” Hannah asked.
    “I don’t know,” Kate admitted. “But it has something to do with Christmas. Sarah’s right. We have to real y pay attention to every detail now. He can’t get any stronger, or we won’t be able to stop him.”
    Matt spent the rest of the day poring over the entries in the diaries and listening to the easy teasing back and forth between the sisters. The women slept on and off throughout the day. Damon and Sarah spent a lot of time kissing every chance they could steal away, and he was a bit jealous that he didn’t have the right to be as openly demonstrative with Kate. As the hours slipped by, al he could think about was Kate and being alone with her.
    He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “It’s late, let’s go back to my house.”
    “El e’s driving in tonight. I’d like to wait for her. She’s supposed to be here any minute, and we slept most of the day after that horrible encounter this morning,” Kate replied.
    “The fog is coming in,” Matt announced. He opened the door and wandered out to the wide, wraparound veranda to stare out over the ocean.
    “El e should be here any minute; she told us midnight,” Kate said, studying the wisps of fog as they drifted toward land. “She’l make it before the fog hits the highway.”
    “Who decorated your Christmas tree?” Matt indicated the huge tree covered in lights and adorned with a variety of ornaments.
    Kate went down the porch stairs to stand in front of the tree. She touched a smal wooden elf. “Isn’t it beautiful? Frank, one of the local artists, did this carving. Many of these ornaments have been handed down from generation to generation.”
    “Don’t you worry about them out in the weather?” The tree was inside the yard, and two large dogs protected the area. Sarah’s dogs. No one would sneak in and steal the ornaments, even the more precious ones, but the sea air and the continual rain could ruin the decorations.
    “We never worry about weather,” Kate said simply. “The Drakes have always decorated a tree outside and, hopeful y, we always wil .”
    The fog burst over them in a rol ing swirl, wrapped around the tree, and fil ed the yard, streaming in from the ocean as if pushed by an unseen hand.
    “I think our old nemesis is attacking another Christmas symbol,” Matt said, pointing to the top of the huge Christmas tree in the front yard. “What does the star stand for? There has to be a meaning.”
    The fog tangled around the branches, amplifying the glow of the lights through the vapor. Kate looked up at the star as it shorted out, sparks raining down through the fog. It brightened momentarily, then faded completely. She was looking up and saw through the wisps of clouds a hot, bright star streaking across the sky, plunging toward Earth. She went stil , the color draining from her face. “El e.” She whispered her sister’s name. “He’s coming for El e. That’s what he was doing in the house. He’s after El e.” The fog was choking the road, making it impossible to see.
    “What the hel do you mean, it was in the house?” Matt raced back inside the house just as her sisters hurried outside to join Kate. He caught up the phone and cal ed Jonas. He had no idea what Jonas could do. No one could see in the fog. They didn’t know exactly where El e was, only that she was close. She had said she’d arrive sometime around midnight. It was close to that now. She might be on the worst section of narrow, twisting highway leading to Sea Haven.
    Kate whirled around, facing toward the town as a bel began to ring loudly. The sound reverberated through the night. “The bel is the symbol for guidance, for return. She’s here now. She’s coming up the highway now, returning to us. Returning to the fold. Sarah—” she caught her sister by the hand
    —“she’s nearing the