“Jaime, meet Savannah,” I said. “A fan.”

“Oh, my—I don’t believe it. See, Paige? I told you she could really contact the dead and you said”—Savannah switched to the unflattering impersonation every teen uses for adults—“‘Only a necromancer can contact the dead, Savannah.’ Well, ha! She is a necromancer. This is so cool! You’re the best, Jaime. I watch you on The Keni Bales Show every month—well, I can’t always watch it, because I’m usually in school, but I tape it.”

Jaime fairly glowed, sneaking quick glances at Jeremy to see what kind of impression this display of adoration was making on him.

Savannah continued, “I saw your show last month—Whoa, what happened to your face?” As Jaime’s hands flew to the scratches down her cheek, Savannah studied her closer. “You don’t look so good. Well, not like you do on TV. Are you sick?”

I grabbed Savannah’s arm and tugged her aside. “We’re still teaching her manners. Normally, we keep her confined to a locked room in the attic, but today she escaped.”

“Very funny, Paige. I just meant—”

“Jaime’s been going through a very nasty haunting, her reward for helping us out. Now for the proper introductions. Jaime, this is Jeremy Danvers. Jeremy, Jaime Vegas.”

As Jeremy shook Jaime’s hand, his face revealed nothing more than a glimmering of polite interest—not surprising, given that Jeremy can make Lucas look over-emotional. Disappointment darted across Jaime’s face. Savannah, obviously thinking Jeremy wasn’t nearly impressed enough, scurried back to stand beside her.

“Jaime’s on TV,” Savannah said.

“TV?” Jeremy repeated.

Elena swung up beside him, grinning. “Yes, TV. Small box, pretty pictures that move…” She stage-whispered to Jaime. “He’s very old. Not quite used to the industrial age yet.” She extended a hand. “I’m Elena.” She looked around. “And the rude one who walked past you without saying hello is Clayton.”

She paused, waiting for Clayton to offer a belated greeting, but he just kept heading toward the sofa, where Lucas was slowly waking up. He handed Lucas his coffee, sat down beside him and passed him his glasses from the side table.

“Sorry,” Elena muttered. “Just ignore him. Please. You know, I read an article about you a few months ago. At the time, I thought it was pretty interesting. Then when Paige told me who she was working with, the name sounded familiar, so I plugged it into a search engine and realized you were the one I’d read about.”

“You knew who she was, too, and you didn’t tell me?” Savannah sputtered.

“Edward got into a car,” Clay announced from across the room.

For a moment, everyone was silent, struggling to fit this statementinto the present conversation, then realizing it didn’t fit and wasn’t supposed to.

“Yeah, yeah,” Elena said. “We’ll get to that in a second. Don’t be so impatient.”

We all headed into the room. Lucas was still fighting back yawns, but managed a tired smile for me and shifted over to let me sit down beside him. Clay stayed on his other side and Elena perched on the sofa arm beside him, leaving the armchair for Jeremy. Jaime and Savannah grabbed chairs from the dinette table.

“So Edward got into a car?” I said. “Can’t track him that way, I guess. Damn.”

“Was it in a parking lot?” Lucas asked.

Clay shook his head. “Street in front of his hotel.”

“Did you happen to notice a bus stop nearby?” Lucas asked.

“Oh, very good,” Elena said. “Nope. No bus stop, and no street parking. So he must have hailed a cab. Does that help?”

“It might,” he said. “I have a contact at one of the taxi companies, who can usually obtain information from the others for a small fee. I’ll go call him.”

When Lucas slipped into the next room, I turned to Jaime. “How have things been with you since we left? Natasha making any noise?”

Jaime shook her head. “She’s gone. Disappeared, probably at the same time she ripped open that portal. Mission accomplished, I guess.”

“Maybe, but something happened to her when she opened the portal, and from the look on her face, it wasn’t something good. She might not be haunting you now because she can’t. Someone shut her down, or—”

Lucas reappeared.

I studied his expression. “Not good, I take it.”

“Edward did call a cab, one from Peter’s company, which made it easy. Unfortunately, he asked to be dropped off in Little Haiti, at the Caribbean marketplace, which doesn’t help us at all.” He settled onto the couch. “What about this portal ritual, Jaime? Did you have any luck researching it?”

“Yep,” Jaime said. “Found exactly what I was looking for. First, though, the warning. I have no idea whether this would even work. Like I told Paige, people don’t punch holes into the ghost world every day. Portals and how to reopen them are the stuff of necro myth. I knew I’d read something about it years ago, going through my Nan’s books. I had some trouble finding another necro who knew the details, though.”

“Do you have the books at your place?” I said. “If it’d help, we could send someone from the Cabal to get them. Save relying on secondhand info.”

“I, uh, don’t have the books,” Jaime said, gaze skittering across the floor. “Back when I left home, I didn’t take them. My mother pitched them out.”