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In an ugly scene, he'd managed to convince a hysterical Philip they had to remain at the church.

They had no idea where to look at this point, and Eleisha had clearly told him they would all meet back at the church.

Rose sent Seamus out, but he needed some general area to search, and after searching all around the train station, he had come back with nothing. Then she'd sent him to Salem, but again, he did not find Eleisha, and after that, Rose did not know where else to send him.

Thankfully, Philip collapsed into dormancy shortly after sunrise, and Wade waited out the day, sitting on the floor of the sanctuary. But he had too much to think about.

He couldn't stand the thought of Julian getting anywhere near Eleisha.

And what if she didn't come back?

What if… what if something happened to her?

This church, their plan for the underground, the life they had been building together would be gone. Rose had the wisdom and the vision. Philip had the strength. Wade had the knowledge and ability to train telepaths.

But Eleisha was the heart.

This would not work without her.

Selfish thought. Wade had never considered what he might do without her, and now all he could think of was himself?

Bastard.

He tried to focus on something constructive. What could he do to find her? He couldn't come up with a single thing. He didn't eat all day. He didn't sleep.

At sunset, Philip came upstairs looking haggard. Rose came up a few moments later-she had slept in Eleisha's room. They still had no idea what to do. Philip opened the front doors and stood on the porch.

Just past eleven o'clock, a taxi pulled up outside the gates, and Philip bounded off the steps.

Then he stopped, frozen in place.

Eleisha met him halfway, and Wade watched from the open doorway, trying not to gasp in relief. She did not run to Philip or grasp his hands or say anything. She was carrying Robert's sword case slung over her shoulder.

Wade walked out to join them, and as he got closer, he saw Eleisha's face.

It was pale beyond her usual ivory and completely empty-as if she had no emotions left. Philip was watching her in hurt confusion.

"Where's Robert?" Wade asked, not certain he wanted to hear the answer.

"Gone," she said with no feeling at all. "Dead. Julian jumped down behind him this time. He left me there on the sidewalk." She touched the case on her shoulder. "I brought back Robert's sword and some of his ashes."

Finally, she looked at Philip. "I'm tired. I'm going to my room."

She moved past them into the church, not even looking at Rose on her way through, and vanished through the door behind the altar.

Philip stared after her, and Wade actually hurt for him.

Chapter 16

Julian went back to his suite at the Fairmont and waited.

Jasper crawled in the following night with a hole in his forehead that looked about halfway healed.

Julian wasn't angry. He'd finished what he'd set out to do. He'd taken Robert's head.

And Jasper had managed to keep Philip away long enough.

For now, Eleisha would hide out in the church, but in time-hopefully not too much time-she would begin to seek out others still in hiding.

Julian could wait.

He did not need to fear Eleisha's small group to the same degree he'd feared Robert: an elder who practiced the laws.

In truth, Julian was satisfied enough with how things had turned out that he felt generous.

"I'm leaving you here for now," he told Jasper. "You can keep the suite, and I'll set you up an account with Wells Fargo."

Jasper was easy to control and he wasn't afraid to throw himself into a fight-and both qualities made him useful.

Jasper's mouth fell open, but he didn't say a word.

Mary was floating by the fireplace, looking equally puzzled.

Julian's work here was done. He was determined to wait and discover who else Eleisha might find… Perhaps an unlisted elder or the trained child of an elder who knew the laws and yet never gained Angelo's attention. Who else might have hidden themselves away all these years? Robert had most certainly told Eleisha of the laws, but simply knowing about them was a world apart from the vampires who'd practiced such an existence for decades or centuries.

Julian had to be sure Eleisha exhausted all paths, overturned all stones in her search, before she lost her usefulness. Then he would reevaluate what danger she and her companions might pose to him.

Until then… he would let her feel that the church was safe.

He picked up his coat and the long cardboard box.

"Mary, I'm returning to Wales tonight. I'll call you from there if I need you. Otherwise, just keep me informed on their movements."

He didn't wait for an answer and walked out the door.

It felt odd that he didn't want to go to his town house in Yorkshire. But no, he would wait this out at home… at Cliffbracken.

He'd be hunting again soon enough.

Philip was at a loss.

Eleisha was not inside her body, but the shell was still walking around with her face. Even worse, Wade and Rose didn't seem to realize she was gone. They both kept saying pointless things like "give her time."

How was he supposed to give her time when she wasn't even there?

The shell began doing some of the normal things he might expect from Eleisha. She had her broker arrange to purchase the church. She helped Wade to sand and resurface the hardwood floor in the sanctuary. She helped Rose set up a bedroom in the second ground floor office. She murmured some approval when Wade set up the first office with a desk and a computer-although she never used it. She even walked at night in the garden with Rose.

But she did not make a move toward searching for other vampires in hiding. She barely spoke.

Because Eleisha wasn't inside this shell anymore.

Philip paced a good deal. He was sick with fear that she might not come back. He tried talking to Wade several times.

But Wade was useless. "She watched Robert die. Just give her some time."

Eleisha's shell slept alone in her own room with the door closed. She would sometimes smile absently at Philip and even let him take her hunting once. But she did not speak much, and he couldn't see anyone behind her eyes.

In agitation, he went out by himself one night and drained the life from a woman behind the Portland Art Museum-and then he dumped her body into a sewer grate.

It didn't make him feel any better.

After two weeks of this, he waited until shortly before dawn, and he went to Eleisha's room. Walking in without knocking, he found her sitting on her bed, gazing at nothing. Her hair hung loose, and she wore a white lace nightgown, as if she just waited for the sun to rise so she could slip into the oblivion of sleep.

The shell smiled at him absently, and his fear only increased.

He closed the door and locked it.

Walking to the bed, he dropped down to kneel in front of her. He remembered the first time he'd met her, in a hotel room in Seattle, where she was protecting Wade. She'd used her gift that night to try to seduce him, to get him on his knees, and he'd found the action amusing.

He wasn't amused anymore, and now he was on his knees.

"Eleisha," he said, "we are undead, but we live. Robert didn't really live for the last two hundred years… He just got through his nights. You gave him something he could not give himself, no? A few nights of life."

The shell's face twisted into pained surprise, and she tried to stand up. He took hold of her arms.

"Listen to me!" he said. "I know this because I wasn't alive either. I wouldn't trade the past few months for five hundred years of just getting through the nights. If we called Robert's spirit up right now, he would tell you the same thing. He would thank you-and Rose-for those nights when he came to life again, and he'd let nothing wash them away."