Barb Hendee - Hunting Memories

"Why?" he asked, not bothering to keep the anger from his voice.

"What was in it?" Robert asked. "Were there details?"

Eleisha was looking at him, too, so Philip finally nodded. "Yes, places they lived, their makers, children, loves, hates, anything Angelo knew. But I didn't pay attention then. I was different."

"Could Julian have taken that book?" Robert asked.

"He could have taken anything. He cut off Angelo's head and told me to run. The house was empty."

Eleisha looked down at the floor, and Philip had had enough of this.

"None of that matters anymore," he said, folding the couch into a bunk. "We need to sleep."

Whatever Robert was fishing for, he must have gotten it because he stopped asking questions. But something was still different-something between him and Eleisha. Philip could feel it.

"Eleisha, I'll sleep on the floor," Robert said.

There. It was in his voice. He spoke like he knew her. He'd never done that before.

"No need," Philip answered shortly. He took his boots off and climbed into the lower bed, lying down, waiting to see what would happen. Eleisha knelt beside the bunk, looking so small and sad that he wanted to grab her, or maybe kick Robert in the face, or both.

"Can I sleep with my back to your chest today?" she asked.

And then everything was all right.

He rolled and moved over so she could press her back up against him and he could hold her with his right arm.

Robert watched this without a word. Then he pulled out the top bunk.

Normally dormant the instant the sun came up, Robert lay awake longer than usual. Maybe Philip was right.

Even if Angelo had a kept a book with details of places and habits and histories of all the vampires in existence nearly two hundred years ago, and Julian had used that book to find and destroy the ones like Demetrio and Cristina… did it matter anymore?

Julian might even have used such a book to lie in wait at the villa for Jessenia, believing she would come to check on her friends. This thought made his chest hurt.

But did it really matter now?

Jessenia was gone, and decade upon decade had crawled past him.

He was traveling in the company of vampires with either no training or a bizarre training from Wade that had given Eleisha abilities he'd never even heard of-and that she couldn't control. They were foreign to him, these vampires. A new breed.

But Eleisha had given him a gift he'd never expected… a second life with Jessenia. He could still smell Jessenia's hair, feel her soft skin on the tips of his fingers, hear her laughter. His eyes drooped from exhaustion, but he feared going to sleep in case he could not still feel her when he woke up.

With effort, he looked over the side of the bunk down at Eleisha, sleeping with her head pressed into the curve of Philip's throat below his chin.

What am I doing here?

But this small alien group stirred something inside him that he hadn't felt in a long time. He wanted to get them home safely.

That meant some part of him must still be alive.

Shortly after Eleisha woke up that night, everything seemed a little better.

They'd left the door between the cabins open, and she looked inside the second cabin to find Rose and Wade already up. Rose's throat looked about the same, but Wade was moving around more easily and seemed to have some of his strength back.

Eleisha moved in to join them while Robert and Philip were busy turning the lower bed in their cabin back into a couch and then securing the upper bunk into the wall.

"Morning," Wade joked, and she smiled at him. He was still getting used to their upside-down world. But he hadn't seen her since sending her off to speak with Robert the night before. "Everything okay?" he asked.

Everything was far from okay, but she knew what he meant. "I think so."

Rose settled onto the couch again. She somehow looked smaller, and Eleisha realized she was wearing some of Wade's clothes, and her lovely streaked hair was tangled.

"How long now?" Rose asked.

Eleisha walked over and glanced down at Wade's watch. "In about an hour, we'll have to change trains in Eugene. But we'll make it home tonight." She crouched down. "I know it will feel strange at first, but you'll like Portland. You can even grow herbs outside in our garden."

Rose didn't respond for a few seconds. The thought of a new home must be daunting. But the church was safe and solid, and she would see that soon.

"And we'll start helping the others soon after?" she asked.

"Yes. As soon as we're settled, we can start out the same way you found Robert, researching newspapers for similar stories."

"We should just set up computer and Internet access," Wade put in. "I could research newspapers from all over the world."

"Good." Eleisha nodded. "We'll use one of the ground floor offices behind the sanctuary."

Rose was looking at them both oddly, as if they were missing something.

"What?" Wade asked.

"Well… we've already found one, or he found us," she said. "That vampire who attacked me was probably made in some random moment like I was. Eleisha, you said yourself he didn't seem to even know how to use his gift properly. But he could be as old as any of us, and he's struggled on his own for years without discovering enough of himself. He may need our help more than anyone."

Eleisha was struck silent. Rose wanted to help the savage vampire who'd tried to take her head off?

"What about the ghost?" Robert asked from the inner doorway.

How long had he been standing there?

"I have a ghost with me," Rose answered calmly. "And those two could have nothing at all to do with Julian. Philip once thought Seamus and I must be working for Julian, and neither of us has ever seen him."

"You didn't attack anyone," Robert said.

Eleisha was not at all sure about trying to help the vampire from the parking garage-as he seemed beyond help.

"I'm just saying that if we encounter him again," Rose said to Robert, "you and Philip should think twice before pulling your swords."

Robert raised his eyebrow.

Eleisha wasn't sure what to believe. If Rose was correct, and this stranger had just been some randomly created vampire who'd been set adrift and ended up in San Francisco and attacked them out of fear, then they were hiding and taking great precautions for no reason. That thought was comforting in a way, and if true, it meant they would arrive home tonight with no further trouble.

But Eleisha could not accept this explanation. He was at the station the same night they were trying to leave the city, and he appeared to be attempting to stop them, and the girl ghost's actions had been aimed at keeping Eleisha away from Rose. It just all seemed too… planned.

However, Robert's insistence that Julian was behind it all seemed equally hard to accept. She had been inside of Julian and felt his fear. She believed he would keep the oceans between them.

"Well, taking guesses isn't going to help," Wade said. "All we can do for now is get home and then make a pact that no one goes out alone at night for a while."

"Except for me," Philip said, looking in from the other cabin over Robert's shoulder. "I can take care of myself." He glanced at Eleisha. "But no hunting alone for you."

Eleisha ground her teeth. How had this conversation suddenly turned to her?

He seemed about to say more and then stopped when he saw her face. To his credit, he glanced away as if realizing how condescending he sounded, and her anger at him faded. He was just being overprotective, and he had a tendency to say whatever came into his head.

To make matters worse, she realized that she didn't want to go hunting for a while without him, and considering his more limited telepathic abilities, she didn't want him going hunting without her. She feared either one of them being without the other's protection. Did that make her a coward?