"Well, after you blacked out, we all took turns kicking the shit out of you." He smiled weakly. "Do you remember what happened?"

She shook her head vehemently, then winced and rubbed her neck. "The last thing I remember, I was looking into my scrying bowl, and I was starting to get a picture. Then I woke up here. I had the most terrible dream."

"Do you remember what it was about?" He briefly considered grabbing a pen and paper; but decided that might seem insensitive. Not that he would normally treat her with perfect sensitivity, but she'd had a rough ordeal. She deserved at least a day to rest before the interrogating began.

When her gaze met his, her eyes held a hint of hopelessness. "I saw a man. He had white hair… And the Oracle. She was there, feeding off of his blood. And she was becoming strong from it. I do not know why it was so disturbing, it just was."

"The Soul Eater." He shook his head. "When you blacked out, the Oracle…she took over your body."

"What?" Bella shrieked, her face pale.

He laid a hand on her knee to calm her. Even through the blankets and her clothing, he imagined her skin searing his. "Don't be freaked. She didn't make you go crazy or kill anyone, like the Soul Eater did to Nathan. She used you to speak to us. Basically, she just popped in to announce her presence."

Bella's brow furrowed. "I knew that."

"Well, then you weren't as bad off as we thought," he stated, for lack of anything better to say. He could have murmured, "Tomorrow is another day," or "Every cloud has a silver lining." That would have been just as brilliant.

"Somehow, I knew that." She started to shake, her eyes wide. "How did I know that?"

"It probably leaked into your subconscious. I mean, she could have left, like, psychic residue… "

Bella quirked her eyebrow. "Residue?"

"I'm sorry, I'm not hip to the whole mental communication scene." He tossed his hands up.

"You are a vampire. What about the blood tie? That does still happen, does it not?"

You have no idea. Everywhere Max looked—at Marcus's bed, Marcus's chairs, Marcus's obscenely expensive rugs—all he saw was a hole where his sire should have been.

Of course, he couldn't expect a werewolf to be sympathetic with that. "I'm just trying to help."

"I know." Her voice was uncharacteristically soft. "She is on her way to meet the Soul Eater."

Max frowned. "We assumed that—"

"She is on a boat. It is a cargo ship of some kind, headed for… Boston." Bella shook her head. "Why would she give you that kind of information?"

He decided to ignore the chills racing up his spine for a moment. "She didn't."