by Barb Hendee
A ghost who remained in this world, who was tied to a person, would pass over either into the gray plane or the afterlife once the living person finally died as well. But a ghost tied to a place remained on this plane as long as the place still existed in some form.
So Mary was having trouble picking up the slightly different "blank spot," as she called it, among all the life energy that helped her separate the living dead from the ghosts. It was frustrating, and it was pissing her off, and Julian was getting impatient.
He'd called her back last night, and he was really mad when she couldn't tell him anything yet. He scared her worse than he ever had before.
Tonight, she worked harder to separate the blank spaces in the fabric of energy, to shift through and find the right kind of undead presence. She couldn't really explain the difference, even to herself, but the first time she'd felt Eleisha, the signature had been more… solid than a ghost.
She struggled to find that signature again. It was hard against the sea of death all around her, but she wasn't going back to Julian empty-handed.
About an hour past dusk, she felt something, and she materialized slowly behind a statue in the Golden Gate District. She focused again and instantly felt a much stronger rift.
She blinked out, followed the path, and rematerialized inside some kind of fancy garden with no flowers.
There was Eleisha. Sitting on a bench.
Good! Good! Good!
She wanted to dance. Julian could finally calm himself down.
But then she looked more closely and saw two extra people she'd never seen before, and both of them were undead. She lodged their faces in her mind-because Julian would ask her a billion questions-and she tried to drift a little closer without being seen.
One of them, a man with a nearly shaved head and a broken nose, was talking to Philip.
Philip looked around. "This place is too open, no? Come."
They all started leaving the garden, but Mary didn't worry. She had them now. She could blink out and follow.
As their small group approached the apartment door, Wade had an uncomfortable feeling growing in his stomach that he could not quell and he could not identify.
Rose fished for her new keys. Wade had called a repairman and had the door fixed that morning.
She let everyone inside, and Robert looked about the place, taking in everything as if preparing to offer approval or disapproval. Maybe that was the problem? Robert was perfectly polite, but Wade didn't care for the way he looked at Eleisha, Philip, and Rose, as if they were inferiors to be pitied.
Or as if they were children?
Something didn't feel right.
Even worse, neither Eleisha nor Philip appeared to notice.
Rose closed the door.
"So," Robert said, still looking around. "You all plan to live together in someplace called Oregon? In an old church you call the underground?"
"Yes," Eleisha said, sitting down and taking her boots off. She'd never liked any shoes inside a house. "We'll buy it as soon as we get back."
"And then what will you do?"
"Do?" she repeated. "Look for more of us. If you survived, others could have survived."
That was another thing. Just how had Robert survived when Julian seemed to have beheaded every other telepathic vampire in Europe?
Robert looked back at Eleisha, and for the first time, he seemed to be studying her hair, her face, her small hands. "I don't think you'll find any others like me."
"Maybe not, but there could be others like Rose. We have to try. We'll bring them back with us to the underground, and they won't have to be alone anymore. Wade can train them."
"Wade?" he asked in surprise. "No, they'll need a proper master to train them."
The anxiety in Wade's stomach began expanding.
"But, Robert, he already understands what to do," Eleisha argued. "He's so good at it that Philip and I were able to figure out- on our own-how the elders must have fed without depopulating entire areas."
Seamus had not yet appeared, and since arriving at the apartment, neither Philip nor Rose had said a word. They were just watching and listening.
But as Eleisha spoke this last sentence, the feeling inside the apartment seemed to change, and Wade's thought patterns grew hazy.
"None of you know anything about the laws of your own kind," Robert said. "If we're to live together, the laws must be learned and obeyed. They were created to protect us from ourselves and others."
As he spoke, the words landed smoothly on Wade's ears. Of course Robert was correct. A proper teacher, an elder vampire was the only one who could help the newer ones protect themselves. And he would guard them all in the meantime. They were in danger without him.
Why hadn't Wade seen this before?
Looking around the room, he could see that Rose also agreed. Philip was still simply watching the entire exchange. But then Wade's gaze fell upon Eleisha as her expression grew frightened.
She glanced at Wade and flashed out.
It's protection. He can seduce by making us all feel protected.
The truth of this hit him, breaking the spell. He couldn't believe how strong the feeling had been.
He flashed back. Can you counter him?
Robert turned toward him, as if he could hear their exchange, and Eleisha did not answer.
Mary managed to follow them back to an old apartment, and then she was at a loss. She couldn't exactly materialize outside the windows and start peeking in, and she didn't know where they were inside.
Focusing, she tried to pinpoint their undead signatures, and she materialized slowly inside some kind of bedroom, making sure she was alone before fully manifesting. She could hear Eleisha's voice coming from the room outside and knew she was in the right place.
Good.
Not much of what they were saying made sense. Eleisha was talking to some guy she called Robert-must be the one with the shaved head-and he was talking back to her about laws and training and a bunch of other boring stuff.
Mary was trying to remember it all as best she could, when she felt someone else in the apartment, someone who was really dead, another ghost. The presence was coming closer, and for some reason, it scared her.
She blinked out.
Since arriving, Julian had not left his hotel suite at the Fairmont.
He couldn't move around freely until he had some information on Eleisha's location. He'd had a good deal of time to think, and if Eleisha had indeed managed to locate another vampire, this woman called Rose, it was likely that she had been created right around the time he had taken matters into his hands in 1825.
She had not been listed in Angelo's book, and Angelo kept careful records. But why would one of the makers create a new vampire and keep her a secret? That wasn't the way of the elders.
Had she been trained all? Was she telepathic? Did she know anything of the laws his predecessors had followed?
It also troubled him that he did not know what had caused Rose and Eleisha to seek each other out in the first place. Or how had Eleisha managed to find her?
The air shimmered, and Mary appeared by the fireplace.
"There's another one!" she exclaimed immediately. "And I think I felt a ghost in their apartment!"
Instead of growing more accustomed to her outbursts and lack of manners and her grating voice, he only seemed to hate her more. What was she saying? Another one?
"Slow down. Another what?"
"Another vampire, besides that Rose lady from the letters… or at least I think I saw Rose. But there's now a man named Robert, with a shaved head and a broken nose, and I could almost see through his eyes."
Julian froze.
"He kept on talking about laws and training and stuff. I think he wants to go back to Portland with them."
Julian put one hand to his mouth, almost unable to take this in. His hand was shaking. Robert? Impossible. Robert was gone.
But Mary had just described him right down to hi
s clear eyes.
One of the telepathic elders who'd plotted to destroy Julian still existed?
The rules had changed.
The game had changed.
Everything was different now.
Chapter 8
Robert didn't stay long, saying he had things to take care of at the warehouse. Eleisha had no idea what these things might be, but she wasn't sorry when he left.
As of yet, he had not stated whether he was going home with them or not-and she didn't know which answer would be better.
Rose closed the door behind him and a tense silence followed. She turned around. "He said he'd be back tomorrow night, but he must be overwhelmed by all this."
"I think we all are," Eleisha answered.
"I have some business to do in my room," Rose said, walking quickly across the floor and disappearing from sight. Wade was sitting on an antique couch, and he didn't look happy. Oddly, Philip seemed fine, but then he'd known a good deal about Robert already.
Eleisha went over and sat down close to Wade. "Don't worry. We won't let him take over," she said. "If he comes with us, he's just another member of the household."
He nodded, his white-blond hair hanging in his eyes. "Okay." He relaxed slightly. "I didn't think you noticed."
"What? That he sees himself as lord of the manor and us as his peasants? Yeah, we noticed."
"I warned you," Philip said absently from across the room.
"When we came here, I just didn't expect… anyone like him," Wade said. "You talked about finding vampires like Rose, scared, hiding." He looked over at Philip. "I guess I thought you'd be the badass of the group."
Philip smiled. "I am."
"So you don't mind if he comes back with us?"
Philip shrugged. "I don't care either way. This whole thing is for you and Eleisha, not me. If he does come, he won't stay long. Angelo told me Robert never stays long." He turned to Eleisha. "But he's better than I remember, and he didn't try to hurt you or Wade."
"Did you expect him to?" Eleisha asked.
"I thought he might be trying to draw us all out at once, and I don't think I could fight him by myself. If he went near you, I told Wade to shoot him in the chest or the face, to stun him so I could take his head."
Eleisha sat up straight. Philip said this with all the passion of someone ordering breakfast at Denny's. Wade glanced away, having the good taste to at least appear embarrassed.
"That's what you expected to happen tonight?" Eleisha asked.
Philip shrugged again as if the question wasn't worth an answer. "Wade, I'm bored and there's no DVD player. Do we have cable here?"
Wade stood up and headed for the television, apparently glad for the change of topic. "No pay channels, but I can probably find us a movie if you don't mind commercials."
"I hate commercials."
"That's the best I can do."
Wade started channel surfing until Philip said, "Oh, stop there… No, go back. That was Die Hard. I'd watch commercials for Die Hard."
"Okay." Wade looked around. "Seamus, are you there? This is a pretty good movie." Nothing happened, and Wade frowned. Apparently, Seamus was not interested in watching movies with Philip. "I'm going to order a pizza."
With Philip entertained, and Wade ordering pizza, Eleisha sat quietly, trying not to think about what could have happened tonight had Philip felt threatened. Gunshots and beheadings at the Japanese Tea Garden? But then again, Philip considered scenarios she did not. And vice versa. Maybe they needed each other even more than she'd realized.
She glanced over at Rose's bedroom door. Once they got everyone back to the church, and they could begin setting it up as a proper safe house, all this distrust would be over. The sooner the better.
"I'm going to go check on Rose," she said.
Walking to the bedroom, she decided not to knock and opened the door to find Rose just sitting on her bed, staring into space.
"Eleisha!" Rose said in surprise.
Eleisha slipped in and closed the door. "I didn't really think you had business to finish. You can't sell the place overnight, and you can do your banking from anywhere."
Rose looked lovely, sitting there in her green dress with her hair down over her shoulders. It suddenly occurred to Eleisha that in the past, back in Scotland, Rose had hardly given a thought to her appearance, sometimes forgetting to even brush her hair. Like Philip, she had changed over the decades.
"You're upset with me for finding Robert," Rose said.
Eleisha hesitated. Was she upset? She walked over and sat on the bed. "No." Then she shook her head for emphasis. "Of course I'm not. This was our plan. You looked for one of us in a clever fashion, and you found someone. I just didn't expect him, and you have to admit that he'll… take some getting used to. But we won't leave him behind if he wants to come, and I think he'll want to come. We just need to get started. I'd like to buy plane tickets for tomorrow night."
"Tomorrow night?" Rose's voice wavered. "So soon?"
"It's best. I should make arrangements to buy the church. Then we can set up rooms for you and Robert, and do a bit more work on the place. Then we start looking for anyone else still in hiding." She paused. "That was smart how you found Robert, looking for news reports. How long can Seamus be away from you before he starts to weaken?"
"Not long," Rose whispered, but her eyes looked far away. "Plane tickets?" she repeated. "We'll be trapped high in the air, won't we? What is that like? Will we have our own small room on the plane?"
Eleisha blinked, suddenly realizing Rose had never been on a plane. "Oh, it's like what you see in the movies. Just rows of seats."
"Seats? With everyone sitting all together out in the open? We will be trapped in the air, among all the passengers and all the windows?" She stood up, crossing her arms as if she was cold.
"It's not that bad. Truly. It's the fastest way, and I promise to take care of you. We'll be home in a matter of hours."
"No…" Rose shook her head, her eyes growing glassy and wild at the same time. "I could not do that. We must have a cabin… where we can shutter the windows and lock ourselves away."
Eleisha blinked. "A cabin, like on a train?"
"Yes, yes… the train."
The air shimmered.
"I think we should do as she says, Rose," Seamus said, appearing next to the bed with a worried expression. "I felt something in the guest room tonight. It vanished, and I've been trying to track it down."
Eleisha looked around. "Felt something? What?"
"I don't know. Something dead, but it wasn't one of you… more like one of me."
"A ghost?"
"Maybe."
Did Seamus know any other ghosts? Speak to them?
"But I've never felt one inside the apartment before, and with all this going on…," he said, moving closer to Rose, "I think we should leave."
Rose lowered her head and didn't answer him.
Eleisha suffered a few seconds of frustration. A train from San Francisco to Portland could take nearly a full day, but then she took in the sight of Rose's anxious face and her frustration faded.
It didn't matter how they got home.
"Don't worry, Rose," she said. "I'll get us a cabin on the train."
Julian sat in a linen-covered chair in his suite, holding his fist to his mouth. A part of him had always known. In the wee hours of the day between sunset and dusk, he sometimes felt panic rising that perhaps an elder had somehow escaped him, slipped away to hide and wait. Or he even feared that perhaps Angelo had missed one-or two-from the listings in his book. Once fully awake, these fears left him… but they always returned.
And Eleisha had found one.
Eleisha had found Robert Brighton.
Julian did not understand how he'd been tricked. He'd cut off Robert's head and watched his body turn to dust. But only an elder would know of the laws, and Mary had described him in detail.
If Robert began teaching the old laws, then everything Julian had ac
complished to protect himself would perish. He would be the aberration again.
If Robert had survived, escaped… could there be others like him?
Yet one truth was clear.
Eleisha was managing to do something Julian could not: draw these vampires in hiding out into the open.
He realized that he could not kill her yet. He would not kill her yet. He was still the hunter, only this time, she was the hound. In just over a month, she had found two others and drawn them out of hiding. Rose was not important just now. Mary had relayed that Rose still required "training by a proper master." If this was true, then she knew nothing of her own kind or their history.
But Robert had to be destroyed before the week was out. In years past, he would have murdered Julian for merely existing-and Robert was fully telepathic.
To Julian's further discomfort, Mary had relayed word-for-word conversations that seemed to suggest Wade was also telepathic, but the girl must be wrong. He did not see how this was possible. Wade was mortal. But what if…? The implications of the timing and Eleisha's sudden manifestation of psychic abilities left him almost too unsettled to think.
Julian tightened his fist. What to do?
He could not reveal his presence yet or the fact that he was hunting again, not when his prey appeared to be gathering into a group. He'd often taken out two vampires at once by stepping from the darkness, beheading one of them instantly, and then killing the second one as he or she was hit by the first one's psychic explosion. Julian was not as affected and maintained his ability to strike.
But four vampires? No, that was too many.
But if any one of them learned of his presence here too early, they would band together as never before, and he would lose the element of surprise. How could he manage to pick off one or two before they learned he was hunting again?
Strength in numbers.
They were joining forces, and he had no one. Well, he did have Mary, and in spite of her repellent nature, she had proven herself useful. Did he need more numbers?