an intellectual art. Fortunately, she also never tried to fix something that

wasn’t broken. “The same for me,” she said sadly.

“And you?” The woman was looking at Bonnie, who was looking

as if she were going to be sick again.

Meredith gave Bonnie a little nudge. Then she stared at her hard.

Elena stared at her harder, knowing that all Bonnie had to do was

mumble “Me, too.” And Bonnie was a good “me, too-er” after Meredith

had staked out a position.

-_-!-_-!

The problem was that Bonnie was also either in trance, or so close

to it that it didn’t matter.

“Shadow Souls,” Bonnie said.

The woman blinked, but not the way you blink when someone says

something totally unresponsive. She blinked in astonishment.

Oh, God, Elena thought. Bonnie’s got their password or

something. She’s making predictions or prophesying or whatever.

“Shadow…souls?” the Guardian said, watching Bonnie closely.

“The city is full of them,” Bonnie said miserably.

The Guardian’s fingers danced over what looked like a palmtop

computer. “We know that. This is the place they come.”

“Then you should stop it.”

“We have only limited jurisdiction. The Dark Dimension is ruled

by a dozen factions of overlords, who have slumlords to carry out their

orders.”

Bonnie,