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My senses fell away from me as we leapt through the portal, but this time I was ready for the uncomfortable sensation. We landed on the familiar soft ground, back in the Pocket Space.

Cam shook himself, a shade green from the portal-jumping. It was hard to get used to, especially if one wasn”t accustomed to gate-jumping with a vampire. Lyra seemed okay. She looked around the area, her hands tracing a small trail on the wall. Everything looked similar, but everything in this forsaken bubble network looked the same.

”I”m not sure if this is where we landed last time,” she muttered. ”Maybe the Ghost always comes back to the same starting point, if it follows the same path?”

Sike sighed. ”Negative. The scanner is working now, but this is a new area. I can see the old map we made on our last trip, but we appear to be on the other side of this dome place, judging from the distance of the old map and our current position.”

I frowned. Bad news, but it shows that the Ghost definitely has some logic to it. Since our vampire senses weren”t as good here, we would have to rely on the technology until it stopped working, like last time.”Any signatures coming up on the scanner?”

Sike glanced down and nodded. ”Not an aura, but I can see the pocket we were in last time is next to us. I think if we go left, we should hit that inside place with the buildings… but then the scanner might stop working. That place seems to make the screen freak out.”

It was a risk we would have to take. We followed Sike”s directions and quickly found the spot where we’d stumbled across Joseph and the monster”s lair. In the distance, I saw the ruins of the Ghost”s lair. It was oddly quiet. I hoped Roxy and her team had been able to capture the creature after we left.

”We need to be on the lookout for children,” Lyra reminded us, ”in addition to the others. I think Joseph was pretty lucid when he told us about that, plus Sike and I heard them.” Sike nodded enthusiastically and then groaned when he looked down at the scanner. Sure enough, our lovely piece of technology had gone dark.

I focused on our surroundings, attempting to sense anything out of the ordinary. Auras came as an itch… and I felt absolutely nothing. I scowled, feeling frustrated. Chandry and Sike wore similar expressions. Lyra studied us.

”Your senses are still fried?” she asked.

”Unfortunately,” I said. ”I don’t sense Dan, Jessica, or Arlonne.”

Chandry sighed. ”Me neither. I thought we might at least find Arlonne, since she”s a fellow vampire, but I can”t pick up on anything. There”s some kind of dark energy… some kind of signature… but it’s like the air is scrambling everything.”

”Exactly,” I agreed, feeling a surge of irritation. How could we move forward like this? Bryce crossed his arms and surveyed the area, clearly worried for Arlonne. At least I could still hear his nervous heartbeat, something rare for Bryce except in the thick of battle.

My senses are wrecked. There appears to be no trail. I thought Arlonne might leave something for us to find. I paused. Perhaps she’d fled with Jessica from the dome, if she thought the Ghost might return to its lair and attack them.

Chandry put her hands on her hips. ”Wait a minute. If there are children here, then how did they survive in all this if Joseph, a grown man with a brilliant mind, almost died?”

”Great question,” Lyra muttered. ”I also don”t know many children that are capable of severing a man’s limb to save his life.”

We had more mysteries than answers, at this point.

Chandry smacked her fist into her palm. ”Wait a minute,” she exclaimed. ”There”s something I noticed about the material last time.” She hurried over to the dome wall nearest to us and placed her hand on it.

”Don”t tell us you”ve lost it,” Sike said. She grinned back over her shoulder. Our new addition was quite the character.

”Not at all,” she fired back. ”Come here. For some reason, I can feel the auras and energy much better when my hands are connected to the bubble. It”s like I can kind of sense them through the tunnels.”

I walked over to test it. I’d never heard of anything like that, but it was plausible, especially since this place existed as an interconnected network. I pressed my palms against the odd material and focused. After a few seconds, tiny vibrations came through the wall. The itch came for me, although it was much softer than usual, and I felt a tug toward the left. There was someone else here… No, multiple people.

”I”m picking up several presences,” I told them. Lyra”s eyebrows went up. ”They’re farther inside this place.” I crouched down to place my hands against the ground. The sensations came even stronger. This network pulsed with soft but subtle fluctuations of energy. I hoped we could follow them like veins leading to the heart of the tunnels. ”Yes, there”s quite a few. Do you think that could be them—Arlonne, Jessica, or even the kids?” We still hadn’t found any sign of the missing Black Rock staff, but it could be a group of Black Rock survivors as well. I didn’t say so, though, not wanting to raise Lyra’s hopes.

”Of course,” Bryce pressed excitedly. He truly wanted to find Arlonne, and I was sure he hoped that she’d found the kids and Jessica, explaining the other presences we had felt. Lyra pressed her lips together, watching him cautiously. There was no guarantee we would find Arlonne among this group.

”It”s worth exploring, but let”s be careful,” she urged.

We set out farther into the odd dome, walking close together. Occasionally, one of us vampires would stop to place our hands on the ground to pick up the energy signatures to help guide us. Before, I couldn”t get a read on anything inside the dome, but the tunnels felt more alive after Chandry’s discovery.

It was like everything we touched was part of some larger circulatory system, making me wonder what the source might be. Maybe it was the Ghost.

”The presences are going deeper into the tunnels,” Chandry said. We had veered to the left side of the bubble. Sike shook his scanner. The screen flickered back on.

”We”re near a previous path, but the old tunnel was on a lower level,” he explained. This place reminded me of the intricate redbill tunnels we’d traveled through in the Immortal Plane. We pushed onward.

Bryce sniffed. ”Maybe if we get close enough, I can use the curse to find Arlonne.” Chandry let out a chuckle, although Lyra”s glance was sharper. She probably didn”t want to risk him passing out. This will only be harder if we have to drag an unconscious Bryce through these tunnels, even if we do discover Arlonne.

We stopped at a section with three tunnel openings. Lyra gestured to them.

”Any guesses?” she asked. ”It feels like you guys are game contestants.”

Sike used his scanner while Chandry and I stooped down a few yards away to feel the ground. The sensation of presences grew stronger.

”I think it”s the left,” Sike muttered. ”But my scanner is glitching on and off.” He let out a defeated sigh. Chandry brushed her hands together and shuddered.

”I feel like it might be the left or the middle.”

I was leaning toward the left, as well, and I told them as much. Lyra shrugged.

”It seems left is our best bet, then,” she said. Chandry sniffed the air purposefully and wandered to the left tunnel, putting her nose close to the entrance.

”Smells like that perfume the annoying woman was wearing,” she said. Oh, it was definitely left then. We went down. Occasionally, a smudgy dark shape would pass by in a nearby tunnel, which we could partially see through the translucent but cloudy walls. I wrinkled my nose as a disturbing sensation sank into my bones. The things outside the tunnels gave off weird vibes. Or was it just my senses being thrown for a loop?

”What was it?” Lyra asked, concerned.

”It felt like a shadow,” I answered honestly. ”There was not much energy to it. Like a faded soul.”

She grimaced. ”Creepy. It reminds me of more sinister harvesters.”

”Hopefully, they won”t hurt us if they don”t have dark energy,” Chandry said brightly. ”I can feel remnants of the monster”s aura as we walk down here. Maybe this was one of its preferred routes.”

It was possible. The Ghost appeared to have a working knowledge of this place.

”At least the scanner is making a map for most of the way,” Sike said hopefully.“It might help us navigate through this place if we get lost. Well… I guess we’re already lost, if we don’t know where we’re going.”

Cam gasped. ”Look,” he sputtered. In front of us, at the next fork in the tunnels, was a bright red scrap of fabric.

”That”s the same color as the material I tore off Jessica”s pant leg,” Chandry said excitedly. ”She might be fraying it and leaving us pieces.”

”Or Arlonne,” Bryce pointed out with a wicked smirk. ”I think she”d very likely take delight in using Jessica”s pant legs as a breadcrumb trail.” Nobody could argue with that, though there were a few snickers. Regardless, we had a new lead.

We followed the crumbs. Lyra stayed closer to me. Occasionally, our arms brushed as we maneuvered through narrower areas of the tunnel. It was nice to be together, but I hoped we could finish this mission soon. It would be even better if we found Kane. Lyra had told me about her conversation with Roxy, which made me hopeful. Roxy wasn”t one to make up stuff like that, and it took real guts to admit she was hearing a voice. It was the same way I’d felt when I had seen Lanzon”s image in the Higher Plane. There was nothing like the universe reminding us that we needed to make room for other possibilities in our view of the world.

Kane was strong, though. He worked harder than most people, vampires included. Would we find him in this place?

”We”re getting closer,” Chandry whispered happily as she picked up another tiny scrap of pant leg. This was the sixth one we”d found. Sike had a rough outline of the tunnel we’d followed from the main bubble area, although it had a few missing spaces from when his scanner went out. There were no clear indications of nearby signatures.

We walked for what felt like an hour. Every so often, Chandry or I would check the walls for any sensations. Sike”s scanner registered some light presences, but they appeared far away on the screen. It was hard to tell what was truly close to us. The map on the scanner appeared to show us going toward the big pocket again, only to snake away as we continued to follow the tunnels that gave off the strongest sensations.

Odd. This place is like a maze. It”s worse than the Higher Plane. Actually, something bothered me about the structure. Not only was the material bizarre beyond anything I”d seen in three planes, but there was an artificial feeling to it. In the Higher Plane, everything was glossy and magical feeling, while this place felt like an obstacle course designed by a mad scientist who liked to pick and choose from the other planes. Why construct something from this material? Or perhaps it was naturally occurring. Maybe the meld accidentally made this place, as weird as it was, when the arbiters stitched the universe back together.

”Pondering the facts of life?” Lyra asked me in a teasing voice. There was nothing to do but keep moving. Sike and Chandry walked ahead while Cam and Bryce brought up the rear.

”Not quite,” I said, but smirked. It was nice to have a light moment with my wife every once in a while. ”I was just thinking about how weird this construction is, but maybe it”s naturally occurring. The environment is far different than what Ruk”s kind made.”

Lyra nodded. ”My thoughts exactly. I keep thinking there”s some logical explanation we”ll stumble across, but maybe this is just something that happened during the meld just like the Leftovers.”And yet, unlike the Mortal and Immortal planes, this place was oddly consistent. There was no diversity in its appearance.

At the end of the next hallway, we came to another large dome. Sike showed us the scanner. Its diameter was about half the size of the first, but this place was filled to the brim with differently shaped plants and structures. Everything was made of the same material.

Sike muttered bitterly when his screen freaked out again as we took a tentative step into the dome. Another tiny scrap of Jessica”s pant leg sat on the ground, and Chandry picked it up with a gleeful cry. We were on the right track. Suddenly, a pulse of energy rushed through me. I paused, and Lyra looked at me. Chandry and Sike stilled. They must”ve felt it too.

There were several presences nearby, but there was something strange about them…

”There are people nearby,” I said in a low voice. ”A group of them.”

”It must be the people on the scanner,” Sike said. He wasn”t smiling. Lyra”s gaze swung back and forth between our trio of vampires, and tension filled the air.

”What”s wrong?” she asked. Cam”s pet let out a little groan and scurried deeper into his backpack.

”It”s mixed energies,” I explained, trying to parse out the sensations for myself. Yes, I definitely felt darkness and light, but this was highly unusual.It was like a giant pot of mixed energies, skewing more on the dark side but in complete flux.

We moved more stealthily, skirting around the plants and trying to step softly.

”They feel—” Sike broke off when a rustle made us stop.

”Quiet,” a familiar voice whispered from behind a dense bit of shrubbery. We turned to see Arlonne slowly moving out of the plants. There was no sign of Jessica. Bryce grinned wildly, but Arlonne put her finger over her mouth as she crept closer to us. Her eyes were more sunken than I remembered, and the shadows beneath her skin had grown paler. We’d left her for less than a day. Had something happened?

She continued in the same low whisper, ”I can’t explain. We need to hide. Now.” She waved for us to join her. Maneuveringinto the shrubbery, we came across a narrow pathway that looped around the dome, allowing us to stay close to the walls. As we neared the other group, a warm sensation came over me. The people ahead of us grew louder. Someone was crying. Lyra tensed as soon as she heard the soft sound of weeping.

These gathered figures were mysterious. I couldn”t place whether they were humans or vampires. We grew closer, and I could make out that there was at least one human among them. I finally locked onto the signature and recognized a familiar scent. Dan. I prepared myself to fight as we found a spot to hide. They might sense us from afar, depending on what they were. From between narrow openings, I made out the sight of Dan shivering in the middle of a circle of several shadowy figures.

It was harder to see in the light here, even for me.

”We should dispose of him,” one of the figures said coldly. Another sniffed and sighed, bouncing back and forth.

”It may be a waste.” The comment was scratchy. Dan sniffled.

”What”s a waste of a human?” another asked snidely. ”He holds no worth to us. He”s useless.”

Dan gave a soft sob. Lyra”s hands turned into fists beside me. If I knew my wife—and I did—she”d want to jump out sooner rather than later.

My stomach clenched as an all-too-familiar sensation washed over me. A sudden chill filled me. Hunger gnawed at me. The hard pinch of my own fangs into my lower lip slowly dawned on me. It was harder to feel it with my senses in limbo, but…

I was hungry for these people.