Eleisha heard the door whoosh shut.

Robert put his back to the wall inside the stairwell of the train and slowly let her slip down until her feet touched the floor, but he still kept his arm tightly around her. She could feel his body shaking. The reality of what had just happened was sinking in.

Julian hadn't stayed away. He had come from the darkness swinging a sword.

She'd been wrong all along.

And now her friends would suffer.

She choked at the thought of Wade and Rose being left behind, but one face surfaced in her mind, causing more pain than she could believe.

Philip would be blind with panic.

Robert's left shoulder was bleeding and so was her right hand, but she made a fist and pounded it against him several times.

He held onto her and let her hit him.

"Philip is so afraid of being alone!" She wanted to sob. "Do you know what this is going to do to him?"

"I did it for him!" he hissed in her ear. "How do you think he'd feel tomorrow if I let Julian take your head? How do you think he'd feel the night after? And the night after that? We have to survive by moving between one moment and the next. Do you understand?"

She stopped hitting him and just stood there, letting him grip her too hard.

"They're all alone now," she whispered. "They can't fight Julian. I don't think Wade would know what to do."

"He won't follow them. He'll come after me first."

He released his arm slightly, and she moved back to look up at him. He wouldn't look down at her, and his face was taut.

"You don't know that!" she hissed quietly. "If he thinks Rose or Philip have turned telepathic, he could just as easily go after them."

"It isn't just telepathy," he whispered back. "That's what Philip thinks because it's all Julian told him… all Angelo told him."

Eleisha tensed and let his words sink in. No, it wasn't just telepathy. She had seen that in Robert's memories. Julian feared a resurgence of the laws. He feared vampires making connections with each other again, teaching the laws, practicing telepathy, and learning to feed without killing.

He would come after Robert.

"Where do we go now?" she asked.

When he didn't answer, she fished their tickets from the pocket of her jeans, looking at the cabin numbers she had reserved.

"That porter was bribed to lie to us," she said. "I think if we go to these cabins, we'll find them empty."

He nodded once, but he still didn't look at her.

Julian pushed the Mustang's speed past eighty. Glancing at the wheel, he saw his left hand trembling and he fought to control it.

He had missed his swing.

The setup was flawless, Robert had walked right past him, and he'd missed.

In all his years hunting, he'd never missed his first swing, not once. What was wrong with him? What happened?

Was Eleisha able to sense him? Feel him as the others couldn't? No, if that was true, she could have zeroed in on him afterward.

But she'd been inside his head during the fight! Just for a split second before he kicked her. He could not risk that again, and he could not-would not-kill her yet.

What was he going to do?

Robert knew he was there, knew he was hunting again.

Julian forced himself to calm, thinking back over the few seconds just before chaos erupted in the train yard. He'd timed it perfectly, and the porter was bringing Robert directly past him. Robert was out in front of Eleisha… Julian had waited, as always, until the right second… and then Eleisha called a warning and pushed Robert.

Had she seen a light reflect off the sword?

In the past, rumors of the way he hunted eventually spread to a point, but the vampires of the distant past were fairly scattered, mainly communicating through letters to anyone besides a direct child-or the child to the maker. Most had no idea how he was locating them or taking their heads.

Robert knew.

This thought made him wonder how Robert had escaped him back in the past, as he clearly remembered cutting off Robert's head… but then he remembered that he'd killed Jessenia first. Afterward, he'd taken his swing at Robert, seen the dark blood spraying out, and the world had grown slightly hazy. Had Robert made him see something which wasn't there?

If so, that would not happen again. He had to kill Robert on a first swing.

Only now Robert and Eleisha would be looking into the shadows.

Julian glanced down at the Amtrak schedule on the seat beside him, trying to decide what they would try next. They were on an express train with only one brief stop in Salem-but the end stop was Portland, so Robert would reason that Julian believed they were running to Portland, and his built-in protective instincts would never allow him to lead an enemy from the final train station straight to the church.

They didn't even realize Julian knew about the church.

No, Robert would want to get off in Salem and rent or steal a car for that last hour home, trying to throw Julian off the trail.

Or at least Julian fervently hoped he would.

But no matter what happened, Julian had to finish this before they got home. He had to make Eleisha believe the church was safe. He could not attack anywhere near that place or she might not continue trying to seek out the others in hiding and bring them in.

With the remnants of a plan forming, he felt slightly better-nearly certain that Robert would take Eleisha off the train in Salem.

He just had to get there first, and he had to know the layout before he arrived.

"Mary Jordane," he called.

She materialized on the passenger seat beside him, looking around in some confusion at the inside of the car.

"Where have you…?" she asked. "Did you mess up?"

He bit down on the inside of his cheek to keep from snarling at her.

"I think Jasper's all set," she said. "He's on the train with the other three."

"What?"

He'd forgotten about Jasper. At this point, Philip, Wade, and Rose were not his main concern-as Rose appeared to be nearly helpless, Philip didn't know anything of the laws, and Wade was a mortal.

But Robert was dangerous. He had to die.

"Look down at this map," Julian said, ignoring the fact that she'd spoken. "Go ahead to the Salem train station and find the nearest car rental lot. Then examine all possible routes to the lot from the station's main or back doors and return to me."

"What, you're going to try the same thing again? They don't exactly strike me as stupid."

He didn't answer her, but he did agree. If Eleisha and Robert were looking for him in the shadows of doorways or alleys, he'd have to try something else.

Wade could see Philip hanging halfway out the cabin door up ahead, and his stomach lurched.

Their train was slowly starting to move.

"Where is she?" Philip demanded. "We have to go now! Where do we go?"

Wade struggled for what to say and then just blurted out, "She's already on the other train, and it pulled out a few minutes ago. I think Julian attacked them in the yard and they had to run."

He waited for the words to sink in, and then Philip did exactly as he expected-pushed him aside and ran down the hall.

Wade could not stop him physically, but he fired out telepathically.

Stop! Eleisha's gone, and you can't leave Rose.

Philip stumbled and halted, turning around, his face a mask of hate. Wade knew it wasn't aimed at him, but he didn't move any closer.

"How?" Philip spat. "How do you know any of this? Did you see it? If you did, why didn't you bring her back?"

"I didn't see anything!" The accusation made him angry. Could Philip ever give one thought to what somebody else might be feeling? "She shot me a few warnings… like she was screaming in my head. She told us to stay here, that Julian was in the yard, that she was on the other train, and we should all meet at the church. That's all I know, Philip, and you have to keep it together!"