Lilith shook her head. "There's a reason. Ialdaboth says he was born there."

"He was," said Lucien. "So was I. The Mother's Spine Mountains.

There's a sacred cave, or there was. The four of us were born there-myself, Ialdaboth, Aanu and Ruha. But I haven't heard from either Aanu or Ruha in several thousand years."

"That's too bad," said Julian. "Didn't you travel with Aanu for a while?"

"We drowned in the Great Flood together. We wrote the Book when we came back."

Jarod, watching Lilith, noticed a slight change in her skin color as the shadows under her cheekbones went grayer. Her forehead creased in a frown.

"Lilith, are you all right?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I'm not sure. I remember something . . ."

She looked at Lucien. "I think I might know where Aanu is."

Three.

Just past dawn, Jarod sat in Lilith's room, making sure her transition to the Sleep went smoothly. There was no reason to worry, he supposed. She appeared to have healed, her vampiric systems functioning normally.

At her request, he hadn't prepared the IV. Instead, he'd laid in a supply of Vivian's drinks for her with strict instructions on when to drink them. He'd have to stop by at dusk to be sure her system had responded properly to the plasma.

She was fine. She wasn't breathing, her skin was waxy and cool, her heart silent. But there was something about her-an aura of sorts he'd learned to sense-that told him she was alive.

Still he lingered, her revelations of a few hours ago running through his head. Eastern Europe. The Carpathian Mountains. An expedition.

He thought about the day Julian had carried her into this room and put her on the bed. Jarod had sat next to her, daubing blood from her face, holding her hand, just as he held it now. He'd felt something that day he'd never felt before, something he wasn't supposed to feel. He wasn't supposed to get attached to his patients.

His thumb made lazy circles on the back of her hand. It was a comfortable sensation. He'd grown used to the feel of vampires, the differences in body temperature and skin texture. The last time he'd shaken hands with a human, the skin had felt too hot. Julian felt strange to him now, with his near-"normal" physiology. This hand, though, Lilith's pale hand with its long fingers and oval nails, felt right.

Finally he let her go and left the room, pausing in the hallway.

When he started walking again he went not toward his own room but in the other direction, toward the heart of the Underground.

Julian was in his office, staring at a computer monitor. He sat with such absorbed, preternatural silence that it was hard to remember he was no longer a vampire in the strictest sense. He didn't move until Jarod cleared his throat, at which point he looked up and blinked.

"Dr. Greene," he said.

Fleetingly, Jarod wondered if Julian even knew his first name.

Then he realized he wasn't sure what he wanted to tell Julian, or to ask him.

"Can I help you?" Julian said after a moment.

"How's Lorelei?"

Julian shrugged. "Fine, for the most part. Morning sickness is a bitch."

"I can give her something to help with that. She should have come to me before."

"I think she has a hard time thinking of you as an obstetrician."

"One of the downfalls of being a vampire doctor, I guess." Again, a fleeting thought he barely had time to acknowledge-why the sarcasm?

Why the vague bitterness? But he barreled on, not prepared to psychoanalyze himself. "I think you're going to need a doctor on this expedition of yours."

"I don't know who could go. We need you here."

"Not so much right now. I can't do much more with Vivian or Nicholas. We found out what we needed to know, but it will be a minimum of fifty years, by my estimation, before the experiments produce a reliable cure for cancer."

"What about the Children?"

"There are issues beyond the physical. Those need to be addressed before we do anything else with them."

"But are you close to being able to help them?"

"Very close."

"Then what about Lorelei?"

"She'd probably be better off-and more comfortable-if she found a more conventional OB/Gyn. It's really not my area of expertise, anyway."

Julian looked at the monitor again, then tapped the Enter key. "So why do you think we'll need a doctor in the lovely and amusing state of Transylvania?"

That was the question, wasn't it? Jarod wasn't sure he had a good answer. "Lilith's been through a great deal of trauma. I'd be uncomfortable sending her off on a journey of this magnitude in her current condition without an attending physician."

Julian nodded soberly. "She doesn't seem to think that's necessary."

"With all due respect, I'm the doctor, not Lilith."

The corner of Julian's mouth twitched. "Any other reasons?"

How about I'd like to get the hell away from this place for a while? How about I'd like to be, just once, somewhere that doesn't reek of vampires?

"If her suspicions regarding Aanu are correct, there's no way to know what condition he'll be in when we find him. You may need my help."

"I'm not going."

Jarod blinked in surprise. "I assumed you were."

"So did I, at first. But I don't want to leave Lorelei alone for that amount of time. It makes more sense to send Lucien, while I hold down the fort."

Jarod nodded. "So I'm talking to the wrong guy?"

"Yes, indeed you are." Julian smiled. "I'll talk to Lucien."

"All right. Thank you."

He returned to his room to sleep, and was awakened six hours later by a knock on the door. Bleary, he looked at the clock. It was almost one p.m. Daylight. He was hungry. The knock sounded again.

"Yeah, whatever!" He fumbled his way out of bed and to the door. Behind it stood Lucien.

"We leave tonight at sunset. Be ready."

It occurred to Jarod, belatedly, that it might not be the wisest thing to be the only mortal among a group of vampires, particularly right after dusk, regardless of what he knew about his personal genetic makeup. Julian had assured him that everyone had eaten, one way or another, but a couple of them still looked hungry to him.

It was a small group. Lucien would lead the expedition, with Lilith navigating. Another vampire, Sasha, had also joined the group. Apparently she spoke fluent Romanian. She looked abominably young. One of the Children, he supposed. He'd spent a good amount of time looking at their blood but not much thinking of them as actual beings, Changed before full maturity. Julian's project to restore them to mortality had seemed ridiculous when he'd proposed it. Now it seemed actually possible.

Looking at Sasha's too-young face and ancient eyes, he hoped his hypotheses proved valid.

Then there was William, the last member of their entourage and the least likely, as he really had little to offer the expedition. Julian and the accountant had never gotten along, although Jarod wasn't sure why. Maybe Julian just wanted William out of the way for a while.

Julian briefed them on where they were going and why, how they would get there and how long it would take. Jarod, who knew most of the plan already, paid less attention to Julian and more to Lilith.

She seemed tired, a little too pale. She'd drunk the plasma drinks as he'd instructed, but he wondered if she needed more. He'd have to catch her on the way to the airport, see if there was anything he could do to help.

When Julian finished speaking, she headed for the door, behind Lucien. Jarod started to follow, but Julian caught his shoulder.

"A minute?" Julian said.

"Of course." He turned to face the not-quite-vampire and suddenly noticed the tension around his mouth, the gray hue behind surprisingly human skin. "What's wrong?"

"My head," he said. "I need something for the pain."

The pain must be beyond human comprehension for Julian to ask for painkillers. "Do you know what caused it?"

"I had to access the Senior's memories to set up this trip. I had to sustain the connection for several hours. It always gives me a headache.

This time is worse than usual."

Jarod took a moment to process what Julian just said. "You have access to the Senior's memories?"

"Yes. Apparently I absorbed them with his blood when I killed him." He squinted, as if against the light, and Jarod could see a vein bulging in his temple.

"Does William know this?"

Julian shook his head, his lips thinning. "No."

"He should. He thinks you hate him. Hell, everybody thinks you hate him."

"You're right. But I'm not ready to deal with that yet."

Jarod begged to differ. Julian should have addressed the issue a long time ago. William certainly had a right to know that Julian carried the Senior's memories of their century-long relationship. But now wasn't the time to discuss it.

"There's a variety of painkillers in my drug cabinets," he said.

"They're all clearly marked. I'd guess you'll need some of the really heavy-duty stuff to even make a dent. But be careful with it-you're not a vampire anymore."

Julian nodded. "Thank you."

"And get topside for Lorelei. Find as many different kinds of ginger as you can. Tea, crystallized, raw, fresh, ginger candy. One of those should help her."

"I'll do that."

"All right. I suppose I should get going."

"They won't leave without you."

He met up with the rest of the group in the hallway, and they went on together. He fell in next to William, but within a matter of a few steps, realized Lilith was pacing him.

"Is Julian all right?" she mumbled. "He looked ill."

"He's fine," Jarod answered, then realized she'd asked out of more than polite curiosity. There was fear in her eyes. "Nothing serious."

She studied his face a moment, as if looking for a lie. "Good."

They left the Underground in a seedy part of town-all the exits were in bad parts of town-to find a stretch limo waiting. The human driver ushered them into it and took their bags. Lilith eyed him closely, and he gave her an uncomfortable smile.

"He's not on the menu," Jarod told her.

"Neither are you, more's the pity." She raked him from head to foot, then flashed a predatory grin as she got into the limo.

Her look caught him off guard.

"Doesn't it make you nervous?" she asked as they settled into the seat. "Having all these vampires around?"

"Sometimes," he admitted.

Sasha cocked a brow at him. "It shouldn't. Your blood reeks."

Jarod nodded. "I've been told that."

Lilith seemed surprised at the comment. "Doesn't smell too far off to me."

"I wouldn't try it if I were you," Sasha cautioned.

Jarod watched the exchange with interest, especially when Lilith turned her attention to him, sizing him up like a box of chocolates.

"Why?" she said. "Would it piss somebody off?"

"Yeah. And it might kill you, too."