She put her face against a piece of red glass and let the side of her head pass through just enough so she could hear what was being said.

No one would see her against these thick, colored windows.

"Of course you won," Eleisha said, opening the front doors. "It was no contest. The best I could do was lure a 7-Eleven clerk into a back room."

She'd cut her own hand and then gone into an empty convenience store and turned on her gift, and the clerk had fallen all over himself to help her. Philip's success had been much more clever and creative.

But she hoped he would not wish to play his game again, and she could not understand why he'd been so quiet afterward. She chatted to try to cheer him. She was half-tempted to try reading his mind, but he'd feel her and push her out if he was hiding something private. What could he be hiding? She had agreed to his "more fun" change of plan tonight. She'd done exactly what he wanted.

Then she stepped inside the church and was surprised to see Wade sitting on the floor of the empty sanctuary.

He stood up. "Philip, I've got the DVD player hooked up to the TV, and a movie came in that I think you'll like, an early nineties action film called Universal Soldier with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Lots of machine guns and some good hand-to-hand fight scenes."

Philip took a step toward him, the dark look on his face vanishing. "Oh, Wade…"

He stopped. Philip didn't know how to express gratitude. It wasn't that he didn't feel it; he'd just lost the ability to express it long ago.

"Will you watch it with me?" he asked.

"Sure, just go downstairs and get the film put in, and I'll be right down. I want to talk to Eleisha for a minute."

A tense pitch in his voice made Eleisha pause and look at him. Philip bounded off down the stairs, and she waited until he was out of earshot.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Wade tightened his mouth in indecision, and then he blurted out, "A letter arrived from Rose today. I read it."

As he said this, he pulled a crumpled letter from his shirt and held it out.

Rose sent a letter! And so quickly.

"What did she say? Did she tell us what to do?" Eleisha took the letter and scanned it, exclaiming, "An address! She wants us to come, and she's trusted us with her address."

Her mind drifted into the future, of finding Rose in her apartment, bringing her here, making a room for her, building their community…

"Aren't you angry?" Wade asked in surprise.

"About what?"

"That I read her letter, and it was written to you."

"I don't mind. I already showed you all her letters. I only wish Philip would read them. Then he'd understand."

Suddenly, Wade tensed up again. He reached out and took the letter from her. "That's right. Philip hasn't actually read any of these, has he?"

"No, except that first short one. I wish he would."

"Eleisha, what is Rose's gift?"

The question threw her. Why would he ask that? She shook her head. "I don't know. We never talk about things like that."

"Is she telepathic?"

"I don't know that either, but if she's not, then she's still killing to feed and you'll have to teach her how to wake her abilities, like you woke mine and Philip's. You will, won't you?"

"Of course I will."

She smiled. "I knew it. You'll be saving so many lives."

He stared at her. Had that never occurred to him before? That by teaching her, by teaching Philip, he was saving mortals who would have died at their hands?

A plan, a vision, had been growing in her mind for weeks now. Sinking down to the floor, she motioned for him to sit as well.

Slowly, still staring at her, he followed, sitting crossed-legged with his knees close to hers.

"We shouldn't just stop with Rose," she whispered. "What if she's right and there are others like her, alone, like Philip was? We can find them. We can bring them here, and you can wake their telepathy, and I can teach them to hunt without killing. We can build a community here."

She was frightened, telling him this, wondering how he would react.

Currently, Wade's life lacked purpose, and he needed a purpose. But Eleisha also knew she'd been somewhat deceptive lately, first by hiding her communication with Rose for a month, and then hiding her plans to buy the church-and then springing it on him while he stood in the basement… and now trying to win his agreement for her own vision, for her hopes.

"That's what you want?" he asked. "To build a community here? For you and me to find hidden members of your kind and teach them to feed without killing?"

At a loss for words, she nodded.

He looked away, but he wasn't angry. She could see him thinking on her words, and she just sat there for a while, letting him think.

"Are you with me?" she asked finally.

He looked back at her, studying her face.

"So… what do we do now?" he asked.

"First, we go to San Francisco. We get Rose."

Julian was alone at the manor. When he woke up a few nights past, both the remaining servants were gone. He could not feel their warmth from anywhere on the estate.

The revelation annoyed him. He'd have to contact the agency again. If he was going to reside here, the main floor should be kept clean.

But for now, he rather enjoyed having the entire place to himself, and he wandered outside, among the abandoned stables. He'd spent more time on the estate this past month than the previous hundred years. He owned a town house in Yorkshire, but he'd come to prefer the south of France these past few decades.

Yet now, he felt safe only here.

It had been so long since he'd had anything to fear that he'd forgotten the cold safety of Cliffbracken. Foolish really; with the possible exception of his familiarity with the entire place, he was no safer here than anywhere else. But he could not bring himself to travel again. Not yet.

He kept mulling over the same questions.

Why would Eleisha buy a church in Portland and move into it… like a home?

And what would make Philip stay with her?

And if Philip had been living in Seattle for an entire month, and then Portland for a week, why weren't the papers filled with stories of ugly murders?

And who was this mortal staying with them, and why hadn't Philip drained his blood weeks ago? Philip despised mortals.

None of it made any sense.

Eleisha was planning something. He knew it.

He had ordered Mary to bring him more detailed reports, and he hoped the selfish girl understood him. In many ways, she had proven herself useful, but her presence grew more and more grating. She had no manners at all. He longed to banish her, to send her back and to listen to her scream all the way to the other side. But he couldn't.

He left the stables and tramped toward the manor. Reaching the back door to the mudroom, he pulled it open. Tonight, he was dressed in canvas pants and a black wool sweater and rubber boots. He was about to take off the boots when the air shimmered and Mary appeared.

She began babbling the second she materialized.

"They found another vampire! Eleisha has been writing to her, and they're all going to San Francisco!"

Julian froze, halfway bent over.

He stood straight and stepped into the mudroom. "Stop!" he ordered, but an unwanted tightness was growing in the pit of his stomach. "What are you saying?"

Mary floated close enough that he could see her nose stud in detail. "Eleisha's been exchanging letters with somebody named Rose in San Francisco. They were talking about gifts and hunting and if Rose knew how to feed without killing." She paused. "This is all important stuff to you, isn't it? You know what it means."

Julian stumbled back and almost fell against the wall. He caught himself, but the dim room was growing darker, as if his vision didn't work. This was worse… so much worse than anything he'd imagined.