Even The Vampires Get The Blues

room. 'Have you finished?'

'Eating or asking questions?' I stuffed a last forkful of eggs into my mouth, washing it down with cold tea.

'Both.'

'Yes, I'm done. Let's go find Pilar and get the statue.'

'We must also have our revenge for the dress he shot!' Clare said. 'It will never recover, poor thing. This evil Pilar person must pay for that crime, and for shooting you, as well, Sam.'

'Nice to know I come in second to a dress,' I told her as I grabbed my bag and a jacket.

'Well, it is a Versace,' she pointed out.

'What's the plan?' Finn asked, waggling his eyebrows at Clare. 'I take it you want us to do some investigating?'

I looked at Paen. His eyes were dark with introspection. 'I think it's best if they tackle Reuben while we go after Mr. Race and Mr. Green, don't you?'

Paen nodded his agreement, still rubbing his jaw.

'So you're going to meet with Mr. Green while we're doing what with the poltergeist, exactly?' Clare asked as we left the apartment and headed down the stairs to the outer door. We stopped at the door so the men wouldn't have to stand around outside while we made the last of our arrangements.

'You're going to find Reuben. It shouldn't be too hard—Paen ripped off one of his arms, and there can't be that many five-armed, former faery poltergeists around here. Here's the address of the Guardian we used the other night. You and Finn help her question the poltergeist about the whereabouts of the statue.'

She put her hands on her hips in a faery version of pique. 'Why do we have to question Reuben about where it is? You're the one who lost it.'

'Stop being so snippy. Lives are at stake!'

She sighed. 'I know. But that poltergeist makes me uncomfortable.'

'I'm sure you'll be able to cope with him just fine. As for why you need to question him, I have no idea where the statue could be. It was taken from me, and could be anywhere in the beyond. I didn't have it when Paen pulled me through the only entrance he knew. But Pilar has no doubt told Reuben by now, so your job is to get that info from him.' I glanced at the watch on her wrist. 'We still have an hour before the appointment with Owen Race, so I think it's probably best if we talk with Caspar Green about what he knows first, then go out to Race's house. Does that sound all right to you?'

'Yes. I have a few things I'd like to say to Mr. Green,' Paen said, flexing his fingers.

I smiled at him. Amidst the horrible cold and torment that raged around inside me, he brought a little spot of warmth and happiness that gave me the strength to go on.

'What if they won't tell us what we want to know?' Clare said, her brow puckered. 'That poltergeist didn't look terribly smart to me.'

'We'll cross that bridge when we get to it,' Paen said, looking grim, his voice even grimmer. 'We aren't powerless.'

Clare murmured an agreement, and with that, we separated, Finn and Clare going off to see what they could find from the poltergeist while we headed to Caspar's apartment. To my surprise, he seemed to be expecting us.

'Good morning, Miss Cosse. What a pleasant surprise. And Paen Scott! Welcome to my humble home. It is indeed a pleasure to see you both again. I take it you have come to deliver the statue to me?'

'Not quite. We've come to talk about a few things with you,' I said, sitting when he gestured toward a peach love seat. 'Not the least of which is your choice in employees.'

'Why did you try to hire Sam to find the statue when you knew I was already searching for it?' Paen asked abruptly, every line in his body radiating anger.

'Ah. I thought perhaps you might put things together. Please, Paen, take a seat. There is no need to be uncivilized about this. You are naturally upset by what would appear to be some sort of trickery on my part, but I assure you that there is none intended.'

Paen snorted something rude under his breath, but sat down next to me.

Do you believe him? I asked Paen.

No.

Good. Neither do I. He's lying. All my elf senses are tingling.

Sweetheart, I'm beginning to believe your elf senses are easy tinglers. But I agree—he's not telling us the truth.

'The situation is a little more complicated than I originally led you both to believe,' Caspar said, making another of those hands-spread-in-honesty gestures that I didn't for a moment buy into. His face was blank, unreadable, although he seemed to be watching us with sharp, dark eyes. 'In hindsight, I am perhaps a little guilty of muddying the waters, so to speak, but I assure you that everything I told you, Paen, and you, Samantha, was the absolute truth. The demon lord Oriens has called the statue due as payment for services rendered to Sir Alec.'

I shot Paen a questioning look. Your father is a knight?

Baronet, Paen said, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for Caspar to continue.

So, someday when your father decides he doesn't want the title, you'll get it?

Eventually, yes. He will pretend to die of old age in a distant location, and I will take over the title until he has passed from mortal memory, then we'll reverse the procedure. It's worked quite well the last few hundred years.

Let me get this straight—you're a brooding, sexy titled Scottish vampire?

Paen shot me a quick puzzled look. What's your point?

Nothing. But remind me to write a book about you someday when this is all over. I bet women would eat you up with a spoon.

'Are you finished?' Caspar asked politely, brushing an infinitesimal bit of nothing off his knee.

'Sorry. I didn't mean to stop you. Please, continue. This is fascinating,' I said, blushing a little at being caught mind-talking to Paen.

Caspar smiled, and I swear if I had been mortal, I'd have lost a couple of years off my life at the sight of it. 'I have been remiss in congratulating you on finding your Beloved, Paen. My felicitations.'

Paen was made of sterner stuff. 'What exactly haven't you told us about the statue?'

'So forceful, so blunt and to the point,' Caspar said, the creepy smile still on his lips. Something about him had changed since I last saw him. Before, he seemed like a relatively pleasant, if a bit intense, man. Now I could swear I felt tendrils of dark power snapping and crackling around him, as if he sat in the middle of an electrical charge. 'You two will do well together, I think. The information I perhaps unwisely kept from you is in regards to the statue's origin.'

I thought back to our last meeting. 'You said that it had been commissioned from a Chinese artist and later given to Marco Polo by the emperor.'

'As indeed it was. But the person who commissioned it… well, there is no avoiding this revelation. The person who commissioned the statue was none other than myself.'

Now, that took me by surprise. I don't know what I was expecting him to say, but it wasn't that he was the one behind the creation of the statue some two thousand years ago. 'So the statue was originally yours… Wait a minute.' I dug through my recent memories and came up with something that didn't make sense. 'You told me that the statue depicted Sun Wukong, the monkey god.'

'As indeed it does,' Caspar agreed.

I looked at him, a sense of dread building inside me until it was so great it spilled over onto Paen. He took my hand in his, rubbing his thumb over my fingers. What's wrong, love?

So many things, I don't know where to start. 'You also said that the person who ordered the statue created was the god of death.'

Paen's thumb stilled. Outside the room, the normal sounds of Edinburgh traffic faded away until it was as still as the room in which we sat.