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.
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.
chapter 8
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