In Memories We Fear (21 page)

“To feed without . . . ?” Eleisha’s mouth fell open. “I don’t know how long that might take. I don’t even know what his gift is yet.”

“Well, we can’t stay here,” Rose said, “not if that ghost is on her way to Julian. We don’t even know how close he might be.”

The decaying walls seemed to be closing in. “Okay,” Eleisha said, fighting to think. “But I have to at least call Wade and tell him the girl ghost is in London. We have to warn them that Julian’s here somewhere. Then we’ll move Maxim. I don’t know where, but we need to move him quickly.”

To her shame, she was afraid of attempting this without Philip.

“You cannot stay inside the city,” Seamus said, his accent sounding thicker.

“What do you mean?” Eleisha asked.

“You’ll need to get much farther away, somewhere she won’t find you.”

“Where?”

He tilted his head. “I have an idea. When I was here last summer, I widened my search quite a distance, and I saw a place that might work. Do you trust me?”

Eleisha nodded. She might not know the inner workings of Seamus’ mind, but she did trust him. However, his next question was much more difficult to answer.

“Can you get Maxim to the Paddington train station?” he asked.

 

By the time Mary returned to the Great Fosters hotel, she wasn’t smiling anymore. This was going to be a bad scene, and she knew it.

The one thing Julian had told her was to stay off Seamus’ radar . . . and she’d failed.

But if Mary had learned anything from her time with Julian so far, it was to rip the Band-Aid off as quickly as possible, deal with his anger, and look for ways to move on.

She blinked into the suite to see Jasper sitting on the couch, holding his sword, and looking miserable. Poor Jasper. He’d been practically locked in this room since arriving in England, and he hated being cooped up.

Julian walked out of his bedroom, wearing black slacks and a white shirt. His pale feet were bare.

“Well?” he asked coldly. “Is the vampire dead? Did Philip kill him?”

If Mary had still been alive, she would have swallowed hard. “Not exactly . . . I screwed up. Don’t be mad. But I really screwed up.”

She always told Julian not to be mad. It never worked.

Jasper got to his feet, moving closer to Mary, and Julian stiffened.

“I picked up two strong signatures,” she said, “and a weak one in some old abandoned building on the north end of the city. I was trying to think of a way to see what was going on without being spotted, and . . . Seamus caught me.”

“He saw you?” Julian’s voice had no inflection. “Clearly?”

Oh boy. This was about to get worse. “Um, yeah, he saw me. I blinked out right away, but he kept following! No matter where I went, no matter what I did, he was on my tail.”

Julian’s face seemed to grow even paler, and she could see the rage building.

“I couldn’t shake him,” she rushed on, “so I popped in right on top of Eleisha and Rose and that crazy vamp, and I got them all scrambling long enough to distract Seamus, and then I blinked out. I figured by that point that losing him was more important than anything else.”

She stopped. Again, had she been alive, she would have taken a deep breath.

Julian still stood stiffly. “Let me understand,” he began. “Seamus has not only seen you, but so have Eleisha and Rose? The vampire they located is still intact, and Philip is nowhere near him?”

That pretty well sized things up, but Mary had been planning for this, with a distraction in mind. “I don’t think Philip even knows where they are.”

That did the trick.

“What do you mean?” Julian asked instantly.

“Well, he wasn’t there, and I didn’t sense another vamp anywhere close by, and he’d never let Eleisha near that crazy guy on her own, so she must’ve given him the slip. She’s been all for saving the new vamp, and Philip’s been for killing him. Rose is on Eleisha’s side, and Seamus always sides with Rose. I think their group has split up.”

For the moment, Julian’s rage was on hold, and he put his fist to his mouth. “Then where is Philip? Where is Wade, for that matter?”

Mary shook her head. “I don’t know. But I can check their hotel.... I was thinking that now the cat’s out of the bag, about me I mean, maybe I could find a way to sort of
lead
Philip to where they are? With a little help, he can still take care of this problem for you.”

Jasper had been silent through this entire exchange. He stood with his legs slightly bent, almost as if he’d need to protect Mary. She was touched by the gesture, even though Julian could not hurt her physically. But she didn’t like for Julian to make her feel like an idiot, especially not when she was the one out there doing all the work.

“All right,” Julian said slowly. “You find a way to lead Philip to this . . . abandoned building, but don’t let him know you’re trying to help him. Make him chase you if you can.” His eyes looked like dark glass. “But don’t fail me. You’ve been stupid tonight, careless, and don’t think I don’t know you’re trying to cover your mistakes by offering a new plan.”

“None of this is her fault!” Jasper said angrily. “You try spying on five different people, and keep your eyes open for another ghost and see how you do.”

Mary tensed when Julian turned on Jasper. Julian might not be able to hurt her, but he’d kicked Jasper into a pulp once or twice. What was Jasper thinking? Wasn’t he the one always expounding on how he had to obey Julian because Julian paid the bills? Now who was being an idiot?

“No, Julian’s right,” she blurted out, stepping between them. “This is my fault. I’ll fix it.” She looked at Julian. “I’ll fix it,” she insisted.

But when she blinked out again, he was still watching Jasper.

 

Wade sat in the hotel room, waiting for Philip to burst back in the door at any moment. He wasn’t certain what was going on just yet—but he had his suspicions. It now appeared that Philip had lost both Rose and Seamus.

His cell phone rang.

The room had been so quiet, he jumped at the sound, and then grabbed for the phone, seeing Eleisha’s name on the caller ID.

“Where are you?” he nearly shouted into the phone.

“Wade, listen to me,” she said. “I’m with Rose. We’re fine, but that girl ghost of Julian’s is here in London. That means he’s here. You have to be careful. Tell Philip.”

“Where are you?”

She hung up, leaving him looking at his cell phone with his mouth open. How could she be doing this?

The door flew open, and Philip strode inside.

“Is Rose here? Is she back yet?” Philip asked, looking around. His hair was a disheveled mess, and his coat was open, exposing the sheathed machete.

Wade fought hard to keep his emotions under control. He decided not to tell Philip about Eleisha’s warning just yet. Philip was near the edge of losing control, and one of them had to keep thinking clearly.

But whenever he closed his eyes, even for a second, all he could see on the back of his eyelids was the image of Eleisha’s torn throat, and all he could think was that he had no idea where to find her . . . and that he’d heard her voice seconds ago, and she’d told him nothing. She didn’t trust him.

“Has Rose or Seamus come back?” Philip asked insistently.

“No,” Wade managed to say.

“Then where are they?”

“You need to quiet down,” Wade said, but his own advice sounded foolish. “What happened?”

Where is Eleisha?
Wade thought to himself.

That question kept pounding in his head, and he tried not to project it.

Philip opened his mouth as if trying to speak, but the muscles of his jaw were so tight and his eyes were so wild, he couldn’t seem to form words. Taking two strides, he grabbed Wade’s shoulder and flashed a barrage of images, starting with Seamus appearing and then ending with Philip running back and not finding Rose where he’d left her.

“They ditched you,” Wade choked, his suspicions confirmed.

“What?”

“Don’t you understand? That was intentional. All of it!”

With the images still reeling in his mind, Wade came to terms with their tightly knit group having broken into two factions . . . and that he’d been left behind with Philip.

chapter ten

R
ose gripped the arm of her seat as the train lurched forward, beginning its journey north to Oxford. She’d never traveled on a train without having first secured a private cabin with a locking door, but that was not possible tonight.

Maxim sat across from her, with Eleisha beside him. Although his eyes shifted back and forth, and he, too, gripped the arms of his seat, he was silent and still for the most part. Eleisha was inside his head, using every method she knew to mentally take him from this place and keep him somewhere in a calmer world—as Wade had done for Rose on the flight to London.

Unfortunately, with Eleisha focused completely on Maxim, this left Rose to fend for herself, and as the train picked up speed, she trembled at being completely exposed under harsh overhead lights, trapped both out in the open and yet still in a place from which she had no escape.

Thankfully, there were few other travelers at this hour.

Maxim’s hand twitched and his nostrils flared in a moment of fear. Perhaps Eleisha’s focus had slipped. Rose forgot her own fears and reached out to touch his hand.

“Don’t worry, Maxim. We are here. You are safe.”

He still looked a bit like a patient from a lunatic asylum. With no other choice, Eleisha had stuffed newspapers into Philip’s shoes and managed to tie them onto Maxim’s feet. They were somewhat ridiculous, but he could not have boarded the train barefoot.

Then she’d put on her wool coat to cover the slashes on her back. In essence, the three of them appeared normal enough not to gain unwanted attention, and the trip to Oxford was just more than an hour. Rose felt certain she could hold on for that long.

When she stroked Maxim’s arm, he calmed slightly, and so she kept it up.

It was far too dark to see anything out the window, and sixty-two minutes later, she was surprised when the train pulled into Oxford Station. She’d hardly had time to suffer in fear the entire way. Taking care of Maxim and helping Eleisha to calm him had kept her from thinking about herself.

However, getting him on the train in the first place had not been easy, and Eleisha had already expended far too much mental energy for one night. She was beginning to look weak . . . and now they had to get him off.

“You stay here,” Rose said, standing. “I’ll get us a taxi and come back for you as quickly as I can.”

Keeping one hand on Maxim, Eleisha looked up with a mix of gratitude and uncertainty.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’ll be right back. We don’t want him standing out in the darkness while one of us hails a cab. It’s better to do the whole transition in one rush.”

Without waiting for the thank-you she knew would follow, Rose hurried off the train and through the station, shocked at how her need to care for others was overcoming her crippling fear of travel.

Seamus had given them clear instructions to take a train to Oxford, and then take a taxi to Caufield Cemetery, located up above the Farmoor Reservoir. This was one of the few heavily forested areas remaining in south central England. Once they were alone among the trees, Seamus would materialize and lead them the rest of the way.

Rose gritted her teeth and hurried on. Everyone had a part to play here.

The least she could do was arrange for a cab.

 

Sitting on the couch in the hotel suite, Philip could not name the emotion pressing down on his chest. The last time he’d been separated from Eleisha, back in Denver, he’d suffered from an unwanted mix of guilt and fear—as he’d been to blame for the chain of events that had played out.

This time, he was not to blame.

This time, he was in the right, and Eleisha had disregarded him, manipulated him, and then abandoned him in order to follow her own decisions, as if he had no voice in this group at all.

Maybe he didn’t.

The possibility pressed down against his chest.

Wade sat on the floor, reviewing maps of London. “Okay, most of the sightings have been in the central north area of the city, and Seamus definitely tried leading you south as far as he could, attempting to throw you off. So I say we focus our search between Russell Square and King’s Cross Station.”

His tone was so matter-of-fact.

“Eleisha doesn’t want our help,” Philip answered, his voice sounding strange to his own ears, like some pathetic mortal’s. “And you said that Rose and Seamus ‘ditched’ us.”

Wade’s eyes flashed up. “Snap out of it! Don’t you understand? If Eleisha has Seamus on her side, he could track down that vampire tonight. Do you want Rose and Eleisha facing that
thing
alone? Do you want them facing Julian alone?”

No . . . Philip did not want that. Not at all. He stood up. Wade had told him of Eleisha’s phone call, and it only made him feel worse. Now she was the target for two enemies.

Wade nodded, growing calmer and pointing back to the map. “We’ll start in Russell Square and move north doing mental sweeps, but I think we should stay together.”

Philip nodded back, even though Wade wasn’t looking at him. Of course, they had to go out searching. Of course, they had to take action right away. Why had he wanted to sit on the couch and do nothing? Eleisha somehow always managed to expose emotions he’d never known he possessed.

But he didn’t like the ones he was feeling tonight.

Buttoning his coat, he followed Wade out the door.

 

Mary hovered in the shadows near the Montague hotel, wondering how she might lure Philip and Wade outside without being conspicuous. If she popped into the hotel suite, the whole ruse would be too obvious. But, then again, they might just follow her no matter what. They didn’t seem to have any other leads.