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 his 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.

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."