The problem was that an overwhelming sense of the dead seemed to be everywhere. Since coming back into the world of the living, she'd encountered only a few other ghosts.

But a weird, misty veil of death hung over this entire city-along with too many other ghosts who were all dressed in old-fashioned clothes. In desperation, she'd finally talked to the spirit of a sailor down on the docks to try to find out why.

His answer was not helpful.

Apparently some stupid earthquake happened in the past here… like a hundred years ago! Who cared what happened a hundred years ago? You couldn't even buy an iPod back then. But a bunch of people who weren't ready to die and who weren't expecting to die got squished or buried or burned up in fires, and their spirits ended up tied to apartments and houses and restaurants and bars.

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.