Even The Vampires Get The Blues

china cups to the floor. Caspar slumped down the wall and joined them.

'Oh, that was smart—just break the nose of a demon lord,' I told Paen as we left the apartment. 'Like he's not going to get you for that?'

'It was worth it,' Paen said with a smile.

'Let's see if you're saying that later on tonight.' I looked at his watch. 'Oh, good, we're not late for the appointment with Owen Race. Let's hope the seer was right, and he does know exactly where the statue is.'

'I don't doubt that the seer was correct,' Paen said, getting into the car. 'It's what Race will want in exchange for that information that worries me.'

I slid in next to him, pointed out the side of his face was burned, and waited the few minutes it took for him to fade the burn away. 'As I see it, we have an excellent bartering point. And since it is a good guess the statue and the Coda are tied together, it seems to me he'd want to help us find the statue so we can figure out where the manuscript is.'

We drove the short distance to Owen's house without saying much more. Paen was apparently busy with his own thoughts, while I tried to digest the fact that Caspar had so deceived us. On the way there, I made a list of things we wanted to ask, but it was of little use.

'He's not here?' I asked the housekeeper as Paen and I stood in the hallway of the big old house. 'Is he going to be back soon? We had an appointment to meet him this morning.'

'He said nothing to me about that,' the housekeeper said, plainly wishing we'd go and leave her to her work. 'The last I heard from the professor he was in Barcelona, and wasn't expected to be back for several days.'

I looked at Paen as the door closed behind us while we stood on the front steps. The sky was black and sodden, rain falling in an endless misery. 'He's gone?'

'Evidently,' Paen said, turning up the collar of his coat. 'I think we should—'

He stopped abruptly, grabbing my arm in a grip that was almost painful.

'What? What is it? What's wrong?' I asked, a sudden chill brushing me.

He hauled me forward to the car, jerked the door open, and shoved me inside.

'Hey!' I said as he slammed the door and raced around to the driver's side. 'What gives?'

He started the car and jammed his foot onto the accelerator. 'It's Finn.'

'Oh? Are they interviewing the poltergeist?'

'They were,' he answered, his voice deep with anger.

What's wrong? What's happened? Why are you so mad?

Paen spun the car around an intersection, blithely disregarding both traffic safety and all applicable laws. It's Clare. She's been kidnapped. By a small, dark man with a monkey on his shoulder.

Chapter 18

'Where is she?'

Paen pulled up in front of a small, comfortable-looking bed-and-breakfast. Finn dashed from the protective shadowed doorway to the car, climbing into the backseat as I asked my question.

'I don't know,' Finn answered, his face bloodied and black with anger. 'The bastard grabbed her as we were talking with Reuben. I don't know what the hell he is, but he has some serious power at his control. He slammed me up against the side of the building before I even knew what was happening. I think I was knocked out for a few minutes, because when I came to he was shoving Clare back into her car. I tried to go after them, but didn't make it far on foot. I can promise you this, though—when I find the slimy wanker, I'm going to beat the living shit out of him.'

'Sam?' Paen asked, waiting for me to tell him which direction to go.

'I'll try, but no promises.' I closed my eyes and cleared my mind of everything until it was as blank as a clean sheet of paper. My thoughts went to Clare, visualizing her, drawing from within all the emotions that represented her. I saw Clare as a child at a birthday party, happy and laughing; Clare as a teenager on a double date, gorgeous and poised next to my gawky, awkward self; Clare as she was last week, helping me move furniture around the dusty, dank office, happy and excited and talking non-stop. I held all of those memories and emotions tight inside me, and used them to find where she was.

'To the east,' I said, looking in that direction. 'She's to the east of the city.'

Paen pulled out a map from a pocket on the door, spreading it out on the steering wheel. 'Can you pinpoint where?'

One possibility jumped out at me. I didn't hesitate as I tapped my finger on a large beige shape. 'Dunstan Moor. I just bet you he's taken her there.'

'Why?' Paen asked. 'Why would he want to kidnap her in order to take her to a movie set?'

'It's not the movie set that's the attraction,' I said, making shooing motions until Paen pulled out onto one of the major arterials leading to the east. 'It's the lodestone.'

'The what?' Finn had used a couple of tissues from my purse and wiped up most of the blood that had streaked down from a cut above his eyebrow, but he still looked pretty grisly, especially in the gloomy afternoon light. Like Paen, he had shadows under his eyes, making me wonder how much sleep the two had during the past few nights.

'Lodestone.' I fell silent, wondering if it really was just four days ago when Paen had walked into my office. We're running out of time.

I know. The pain and regret was in his voice, seeping through despite his attempts not to worry me.

I don't want your mother to have to experience this, I said, rubbing a hand on my chest, as if that would ease the constant agony of howling wind that seemed to tear me apart from the inside out.

I know you don't, love. I don't want you to have to live this way, either. We'll find the statue and the manuscript. Don't worry.

'Lodestone like the magnetic stone?' Finn asked.

'That's one meaning of the word, but in the Fae world, it also refers to a location that is strong with the magic of the beyond, a place that draws elves and faeries. It's like a doorway between realities.'

'Something like the place your office is located?' Paen asked.

'Like founded land, only multiplied by about a thousand times. Lodestones are treated as holy places, as sanctuaries where only the most ancient of rituals are held. There are only three in the UK.'

'And Dunstan Moor is one of these lodestones?'

'Yes. I felt it when we were there the other day, but didn't think much about it. That's why Uilleam and the other ghosts had such a strong presence—the land itself was founded, making it possible for them to be more than just an apparition in our reality.'

'You think Pilar has taken Clare there?' Finn asked.

I shrugged. 'It's the only logical place I can see he might want to go to in this area. Although he's a demon, and as such can't use the lodestone as a doorway, it's conceivable he could tap its power by means of some being who could, like Reuben…'

'… or Clare,' Paen finished the sentence.

I nodded.

'What did you find out from Reuben?'

'Nothing,' Finn answered, disgust evident in his brown eyes. 'It was a complete waste of time. He was clearly afraid of Pilar, and had been in hiding since Paen ripped off his arm.' Finn paused for a moment. 'Did you know that a poltergeist can't function without his arms?'

'Er… no,' I said, sidetracked for a moment into wondering if they could do the starfish thing and grow back their limbs.

'Well, according to Noelle, they can't. That's why Reuben was hiding from Pilar. He couldn't go into the