EVEN VAMPIRES GET THE BLUES

forming into one glorious entity. Joined as we were, I could feel everything he felt, and what it was he was thinking.

And he could do likewise.

He had to know I was trying to avoid confronting the emotions that swirled around in me, a vortex of love and anger and pain. But he said nothing as the merging pulled me back into reality, separating us into two people again.

I found myself standing in my office at the window, blinking at the bright afternoon sun that poured in and spilled into a warm pool on the floor. Thanks, Paen. I appreciate that.

I wish to talk to you about what's happened.

Sorry, can't right now. Things to do, places to go, people to curse.

What?

Nothing. Another little joke.

Sam—

Signing off for now. I'll see you for dinner later. Bye.

I'm just outside your office—

La la la, my fingers are in my ears and I can't hear you!

You're not listening to me with your ears, woman. I'll be at your office in twenty seconds or less, and then we will discuss the situation.

It wasn't easy to tune him out of my mind, but I did it. I hurried out the front way so I wouldn't run into him coming in the back, my soul bleeding tears of anguish. I just about cried salty ones when I got to Diviners' House and discovered that the shoebox in my bag was empty.

'Sam? Are you all right?' Jake asked as I stared numbly at the inside of the empty shoebox.

'No, I'm not all right. I'm just about as far from all right as you can possibly get and still be alive. God damn it, Jake! Someone stole my statue!'

He gave me a thin-lipped look. 'After what you told me about being shot by that man Pilar, I'd think it would be a relief to have it off your hands.'

I narrowed my eyes as I thought back to the visit to Caspar's house. 'I bet it was Pilar who zapped me. I bet he stole the statue while I was immobile between realities. How on earth am I going to get it back?'

'Why do you want it back? It sounds to me like it hasn't brought you anything but bad luck.'

'It's mine,' I said, putting the empty box back into my bag. 'The demon gave it to me. Yes, by mistake, but both Clare and I were shot for it—that means I have the right to get to the bottom of what it is, and why Pilar wants it so bad. Thanks, Jake. Sorry to disrupt your day for nothing.'

He saw me to the door, stopping me briefly as I stood on the doorstep, soaking in the warmth of the sunshine. 'So, this thing with you and Paen—I can't tell you how happy I am that you've found someone at last. I wasn't sure about him, since Dark Ones tend to be a bit intense, but he seems like a nice bloke. I wish you both an eternity of happiness. One question—should I be buying a wedding present anytime soon?'

The sun went behind a cloud. Pain gripped my chest and didn't allow me to breathe. 'No,' I said, and left.

I was pretty much on autopilot all the way back to the office, finding my way to the correct bus, getting off at the correct stop, and walking the two blocks to the office without seeing, feeling, or registering anything around me. I was too caught up in my own misery to even notice the sudden bank of black clouds that started rolling in from the north.

'Life sucks,' I said as I opened the door to my office. Finn and Clare, back from wherever it is they'd gone off to, looked up from her computer, questions evident in their expressions. At my desk, Paen sat, making notes on a notepad. I noticed he was left-handed, as I was. It warmed my heart for a moment before I remembered that as far as he was concerned, my heart could take a flying leap.

'You look horrible,' Clare said, getting up to take my coat and hang it properly on the coat-tree. 'Did Brother Jacob not have anything helpful to say about the statue?'

'What statue?' I asked, pulling the shoebox out of my purse and handing it to her.

She opened it. 'I don't understand. Where is the statue?'

Grief built up inside me until I thought I'd break down into a good, old-fashioned elf-dirge. I'd lost Paen, lost the statue, and I wasn't the tiniest bit closer to finding either the Jilin God or the Coda. A big old pity party welled up inside me and whined to be set free. 'The statue was stolen from me sometime while I was held prisoner.'

It took only a few minutes to tell my startled audience the events of the last two hours, ending up with a brief rant against everything that had gone wrong of late. 'I can't believe this,' I said, storming around the office, waving my hands in the best drama queen fashion. 'I'm known for my ability to find things. It's what I do best! Nothing has ever stayed lost once I've tried to find it, and yet here I am, employed to find two simple items, and I'm no closer now to finding their whereabouts than I was when I was hired, not to mention losing a third item I wanted to keep!'

Clare popped a lilac blossom in her mouth, her eyes huge as she watched me emote.

'I think you're allowing things to get to you,' Paen offered, getting to his feet. He tucked his notebook away into his jacket pocket.

I pointed a finger at him. 'You're a big part of the problem, buster.'

He raised his eyebrows. 'I fail to see how our personal situation—'

'I'm not talking about your commitment issues—I'm referring to the fact that you didn't tell me everything you knew about the Jilin statue. You willfully withheld information about it, information that might have helped me if I had known it two days ago.' That wasn't strictly fair, but I was grasping at straws.

'What information?' Finn asked, frowning at his brother.

Paen frowned back at him for a moment before turning to me. 'I told you everything I knew about the statue.'

I marched over to stand in front of him, my hand on my hip. 'Oh you did, huh? You didn't mention that the statue represents the origins of immortal races, and that it supposedly contains some big secret of how they were created. You didn't tell me that it was priceless, worth so much that someone would offer me fifty thousand pounds just to find it for him.'

'Fifty thousand—' Paen grabbed the finger I was using to punctuate my sentences by poking it into his chest. I squelched the little tremor of pleasure that zipped through me at his touch. 'Who offered you money to find my statue?'

'The mage expert I consulted earlier. It turns out he is also looking for the Jilin God, only he was a bit more forthcoming with information about it.' I let Paen see the full extent of my discontent.

He glared right back at me. 'I had no idea it represented the origin of immortal races any more than I knew it was priceless. I've done extensive research into the origin of the Moravians and never heard of it, so perhaps the information from your source is questionable. Who is this mage expert?'

'Possibly it's questionable, but it sounded like the truth. It would explain why a demon lord would want it—if it held secrets of the immortals, surely that would give a demon lord power over the various races?'

'It is within the realm of possibility, but just barely,' Paen said, releasing my hand. 'The expert's name?'

'Hmm? Oh. Caspar Green.'

I thought Paen's eyeballs were going to pop out of his head.

'Who?' he roared.

'Caspar Green. Why are you so upset?'

'That's not a man, that's a demon,' Paen snarled, slamming his fist into the wall. I flinched at both the hole he left and the red welts that appeared on his hand. 'He's the one who is demanding I repay my father's debt.'

It was my turn to do the eyeball pop. 'You're kidding. Caspar is the one doing this? We're going to have to have another talk with him.'

'Right now,' Paen said, snatching up his coat and heading for the door.

All four of us trooped out and descended upon Caspar. Or tried to, at least. He didn't answer his door buzzer or the phone, and when Paen, driven by fury, scaled the outside of the building and deliberately broke into the