"Not necessarily." Max tried, and failed, to make eye contact with Nathan, so he turned to me. "It sounds more like the Oracle gave Bella accidental access. Mind residue or something."

"There are still things that are hidden to me. I know where she is going. I know someone is with her. But I cannot see who." Bella's smooth forehead creased in concentration. "Another vampire."

"That narrows it down," Max quipped. At Bella's hurt look, he added a hasty, "Sorry."

There was a pause. Nathan still stared into the flames of the fireplace, his steepled fingers pressed to his lips as he leaned forward, elbows on his knees. Max looked uncomfortably from him to me.

I shrugged. "So, where's the Oracle going, then? I mean, we don't have much, but that's something."

"Boston," Bella answered quickly. "She is on a ship."

"Do you know when she'll arrive?" If she'd already come ashore, she could be anywhere.

Bella nodded. "Soon. She is still at sea, but she becomes restless. They will land in a few days."

"That doesn't give us much time." Max seemed in danger of slipping into the same concentration coma Nathan was already in. Luckily, he snapped out of it quickly. "We'd better get moving."

"All of us?" I'd just taken a long, perilous road trip, and I didn't feel inclined to go on another one. Where I really wanted to be was back in Grand Rapids, living in skewed domesticity and half-assed reconciliation with Nathan. "I mean, shouldn't someone stay behind and try to find the Soul Eater?"

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe you and Nathan should?" Max smiled. "Seriously, though, it's a good idea. Bella has to go to Boston, because she's the one who'll be able to get clues and necessary info from the Oracle's brain. I've got experience with the Oracle, albeit a drugged up, restrained Oracle, but it is experience. And the Soul Eater is really your and Nathan's area of expertise."

"So, I guess it's settled then," I said slowly, looking for any reaction from Nathan. "You'll go to Boston and we'll… "

"Nobody is going anywhere," Nathan said finally. His meaningful gaze locked on each of us before moving back to the flames.

"So we're just going to sit around until the Oracle hooks up with your daddy and they turn the world into a nightmare of chaos on earth?" Max shook his head and lifted one arm over his head. "Raise your hand if you think that's a bad idea."

"It is a bad idea," Nathan agreed. "But it's also a bad idea to rely on information from the Oracle, especially considering how we got it."

"Information from the Oracle is rarely wrong?" Max turned to me. "Remember Anne, the receptionist? She told you the Oracle had given her a vision of her back breaking, and it happened."