“The people here are very like my people were—a little more technologically advanced but otherwise not so different.” The streetlights divided the night into flickering shadow. Arra stared at the dashboard. “And that was what he decided the last time; when his shadow brought him one of our lives. Now, he sends spies to gather information to ease his conquest. The shadow in Lee Nicholas was what we called a rider, designed to live his life for a time and then return to be—reusing the sponge analogy—squeezed dry. On my world, the first riders stayed no more than a couple of hours. Then days. The last two we destroyed had been within their hosts for just over a week, making over those hosts into dark shadows of themselves.”

Two members of her order died screaming, darkness pouring from them.

Arra shook herself free of the memory. “If one of the shadow-held has grabbed Tony . . .”

“One has.” The two words were a low growl.

“. . . then they’re showing a greater degree of independence than he granted them in the past.”

“He’s had some years to work on refining them. In the time since you left, he could have created a whole new kind of shadow with, as you say, a greater degree of independence.”

“So you’re saying my information is out of date? Useless to you?”

Eyes locked on the road, he ignored her question. “I think he’s sent these shadows through to discover what destroyed the shadow that was in Lee Nicholas. I think he sent them through looking for the light.”

“It was a carbon arc lamp . . .”

“The metaphorical light.”

The metaphorical light? Arra repeated silently. Then asked aloud, “And what makes you think that?”

“I’ve done some detective work in the past . . .”

“A vampire detective? Well, that’s . . . original.”

The steering wheel creaked under the Nightwalker’s tightened grip. Probably not wise to poke at him—all right, definitely not wise—but impossible to resist. “The . . . shadow-held as you call it, grabbed Tony less than two blocks away from the largest, oldest Orthodox synagogue in Vancouver.”

“And you think?”

“That Tony was coincidence. He was grabbed because he was there and knew the shadow for what it was. That the other six shadows are checking out churches and mosques. This world has no wizards, but it has light.”

Temples fell, bodies seeking sanctuary were crushed under burning rubble.

“Not the kind that will help.”

He glanced over at her, his eyes dark. “It causes you pain.”

“What does?” she asked suspiciously.

“Talking about the shadows.”

“Yeah. Well . . .” Arra grabbed for the dashboard as he accelerated through the end of an amber light and the beginning of a red. Horns blasted out a protest from two different directions. “. . . it’s a welcome distraction from your driving!”