I glanced his way, sure his head would blow off his neck at that. The "meager" library had belonged to Marcus, and Max took all slights against him, intentional or not, very seriously. His face remained impassive, and he leaned back in his chair, arms folded over his chest.

Bella, ignorant of her affront, continued speaking. "It appears there was a breakdown in Movement communication in France during the Nazi occupation. A handful of assassins found themselves unable to contact headquarters or track their quarry. They turned to divination to reestablish communication and monitor the whereabouts of their mark.

"Though in this case it would be unrealistic to try and open a line of communication with the Movement, we could certainly use those same means to glean information about the Oracle and what she intends to do now that she is free."

"Or Nathan could do it." Max's voice seemed overloud, and we all turned to stare at him in varying degrees of horror as he continued. "He has a blood tie with the Soul Eater. If he's working with the Oracle, Nathan would know it." At the thought of Nathan making contact with his terrifying sire, the one who'd possessed and tormented him, the blood in my veins turned to ice. "No!"

My denial was echoed by Bella. "He was possessed once by the power of his sire. My spell freed him, but I cannot guarantee I could do so again."

"She's right," I agreed vehemently. "Nathan, you can't even consider doing something like that He would find you in a minute."

Beside me, Nathan drummed his fingertips on the table. "I think you're right. We try Bella's way, first."

Max snorted. "Listen, I'm not trying to shoot down the one solution anyone has come up with, but I'm not sure this is exactly the most efficient way to go about finding the Oracle and figuring out what her plans are."

"What would be more efficient?" Bella demanded. "Traveling the world door-to-door, knocking and asking if the Oracle is inside?"

Rolling his eyes, Max turned to Nathan and me. "Listen, you guys can't really believe this is our best bet? Random patterns of cards and gazing into a crystal ball?"

Though I felt as though I was betraying him, we didn't have much else to go on. I spread my hands helplessly. "Well, it couldn't hurt to try. If the Movement has fallen apart, it's just a matter of time until every non-Movement vampire figures it out and we end up with a crisis on our hands."

"So, we're going to prevent this from happening with our super New Age mind rays?" He shook his head. "I'm sorry, I just think we're barking up the wrong tree."