“Go away, Caleb. You’ve done what you promised Jane you’d do. Now leave her alone.”

“I can’t,” he said simply. “The moth to the flame. You’re right, she draws me. I don’t know why. Or maybe I do, and I don’t want to admit it.”

“Hurt her, and I’ll kill you,” she said quietly.

“I know.”

“Why are you here, Caleb?”

“The dreams.”

“What?”

“She has dreams, not the usual dreams. She dreamed about the man in the Guilt painting. I need to know everything there is to know about those dreams.”

“Then go ask Jane.”

“She won’t talk to me about them.” He smiled sardonically. “You’d think that she didn’t have complete trust in me, wouldn’t you? I don’t see why. Do you suppose it’s because she can see more than I want anyone to see? No, she’s not going to tell me anything. She thinks I’m weird, and she doesn’t want to be grouped under the same umbrella. She’s fighting admitting that those dreams are a little on the fey side.”

“Yes, she would. Jane has problems accepting anything that’s not solid and completely no-nonsense.”

“But you have no such problem,” he said softly. “That’s why I came to you.”

“And why should I tell you something that Jane wouldn’t?”

“Because I believe the dreams are the key. I can’t help her until I can unlock the puzzle.”

Eve was silent, gazing at him. “Jane is right, you are weird, and I’m not sure that I should give you any keys. You find out entirely too much on your own.”

“But I haven’t broken the code and gone in and made Jane tell me. That should count for something.”

“Since I have an idea that your code is superflexible, I haven’t got much faith in it.”

“I didn’t yield to temptation. I was tempted, Eve.”

“And I should give you a reward?”

He smiled. “Please.”

She shook her head. “You’re a formidable man, Caleb.”

“But you’re going to help me. For Jane’s sake.”

“Is it for Jane’s sake?”

“Yes,” he said quietly. “That I can promise you. It’s all for Jane, Eve.”

She believed him. He was complex, convoluted, and the chameleon she had called him; but he was telling the truth about wanting to help Jane.

And Lord knows she wanted Jane to have all the help that she could get, no matter where it came from.

She turned away and looked out the window. “I don’t know a lot about the dreams. You’re talking about those special dreams. Right? Jane didn’t confide much, and I didn’t push her. Some of it I found out later, and some I’m sure she’s never told me.”

“When did they start?”

Eve had no trouble remembering when she’d first become aware of them. “She was seventeen. She began to have dreams that were different from the usual run that most of us experience.”

“Like a story unfolding.”

She glanced at him. “It seems she did tell you a little about them. I’m surprised.”

“And suspicious. I did push a little, but I backed away. And I told her I’d done it.”

“How admirable,” she said ironically.

“I thought so. What were the dreams about?”

“Cira, an actress who lived in ancient Herculaneum. The dreams were so real that Jane started to investigate the possibility that Cira had actually existed. She thought that she might have run across something in a book or the Internet that could have triggered the dreams. She was a student, and that made the idea at least plausible.”

“That sounds like Jane. Explore every possibility based in reality before even considering anything psychic.”

“It’s what I would have done. Jane and I are a lot alike.”

“Yes, but there are differences that make both of you fascinating. Was there a Cira?”

“Oh, yes. She was quite famous in her day. There were even statues sculpted of her.” She paused. “And she looked remarkably like Jane.”

“Really? That must have shaken her.”

Eve smiled. “Not Jane. Or at least she wouldn’t admit it. She says everyone has a double somewhere.”

“But she was interested enough to search out everything she could find about this Cira?”

“She had no choice. She’d opened a can of worms when she started probing. Cira had possessed a chest of ancient gold coins that would have been worth millions, perhaps billions. When Jane started the search, it attracted the attention of a criminal, Thomas Reilly, who went on the attack. Jane had to dig in and find out everything she could just to survive.”

“Billions?” Caleb repeated thoughtfully. “Millions I can understand for ancient gold coins. But not billions. Why?”

“There were certain rumors.” She met his gaze. “That there were other coins in the chest. Coins brought by Cira’s slave when he came from Jerusalem.”

Caleb stiffened. “Jerusalem.”

She nodded. “The Judas coins.”

“Shit.”

“It was my first thought when Jane told me what Roland was after. Strange coincidence.”

“Even stranger that Jane didn’t make the connection.”

“When the dreams stopped, she went into denial about those dreams of Cira. It’s more comfortable for her that way. She prefers to block them out.”

“The chest was never found?”

She shook her head. “Cira ran away from Herculaneum during the eruption of Vesuvius and traveled here to Scotland. She and her husband took on new identities and moved to the Highlands.”

“What new identities?”

She smiled. “MacDuff.”

He nodded. “Of course. It’s rather annoying that everyone here at the Run must know about it but me. Sometimes being the outsider is an uphill struggle. But it’s all coming together now. Except for that chest of coins. Are you sure that MacDuff hasn’t found it?”

“I’m sure. It’s driving him crazy that he can’t convince Jane to help him search for it.”

“Too bad.” He was frowning. “The Judas coins. If they’re in a chest somewhere in Scotland, then Hadar’s Tablet isn’t going to help us much.”

“Or maybe it will,” Eve said. “I told you, it’s only a rumor that the coins are in that chest.”

“Connections. Jane dreams about a chest that may contain the Judas coins. Years later she starts to dream about the face of a man who could be Judas. Then she’s hunted by members of a cult who worship Judas. It’s all bound together.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

“I choose to believe that there’s a connection.” He rose to his feet. “It pleases my analytical soul.”

“It won’t please Jane’s pragmatic approach on life.”

“Then one of us will have to bend.” He started for the door. “And I may have an advantage. Every time she closes her eyes, I may have an ally come out and whisper in her ear.”

“Judas?”

“I don’t know. Judas, the devil, an angel trying to set things right? It’s a mystery.” He glanced back at her as he opened the door. “Thank you for helping me. I know you have some serious doubts.”

She nodded. “And I don’t want you messing with Jane’s mind or will. I only trust you so far.”

“But I trust you to Hell and back. It’s nice being able to feel like that about someone. Good-night, Eve.”

She stood there as the door closed behind him. Those last words had been oddly touching and unexpected. Caleb was always surprising, but she was usually aware of mockery running beneath his words. There had been no mockery tonight.

Particularly when he spoke about Jane. He had been unsure, bewildered about his own emotions toward her, and that had made him seem more vulnerable. His willingness to admit that vulnerability to her had drawn her inexplicably closer to him.

Of course, that could have been pure sham.

But she didn’t believe that was the case. Which made her shifting relationship with Caleb all the more disturbing. She was aware of the ephemeral beginnings of a tentative alliance.

And who in hell wanted to have a vampire for an ally?

IT WAS CLOSE TO NINE that night when Jock knocked on Jane’s door. “Coffee.”

Jane pushed back away from the computer and rubbed her eyes before she got up and crossed the room to open the door.