EVEN VAMPIRES GET THE BLUES

sex without love, and happily going about my way without interference from anyone. You owe me!

I laughed, leaning into him to replace my fingers with my lips, offering him everything I had, pouring into him all the love I felt, accepting in return from him the radiant warmth of his soul, crested by a love so powerful it seemed to rock the world back on its axis. I love you, Paen. I love you more than I ever imagined was possible for one person to love another. You are the sun to me, you warm me and give me life, and I could not exist any longer without you. But I have to do this. We have to save Clare and your mother, and if you can think of another way to do it, I'm all ears.

Pain cut sharply through him, pain and regret, and anger at himself for not being able to save me.

But you did save me, I told him, drinking in his warmth as he pulled me up tight to his body. You didn't let me die before, and I know you won't let me go now. No matter what happens, I know you won't let go.

'I'll see to it nothing happens,' he said grimly, pulling his mouth from mine. He half turned, calling over his shoulder to Pilar, 'Release Clare, and you can have Sam and me as hostages.'

Beppo jumped onto Pilar's shoulder. The demon seemed to consider Paen's offer for a moment before shrugging. 'If you wish to offer yourself as well, I will not object. You may approach us, but only you two. No one else.'

Paen had to have a short talk with Finn, Uilleam, and the ghosts before they would let us climb up to where Pilar and Clare waited. I got the feeling that unlike Finn, the ghosts weren't so much upset with Paen and me putting ourselves in potential danger as they were pissed at being done out of a good fight.

'You can fight later,' I told Uilleam as I scrambled up a large rock at the base of the cliff.

'Do we have yer oath on that?' he asked, fingering the edge of his sword.

I looked in surprise at him for a moment. 'You speak English?'

'We're dead, not daft,' he said with a roll of his eyes. 'We've naught else to do around here but listen to the tourists. At least, not until this lot came.' He indicated the movie crew with a sweeping gesture.

'Oh. Right. Well, then, if you guys can just hold tight for a bit, I promise you we'll find someone for you to battle later. Pretend battle. No killing or anything.'

The ghosts looked disappointed.

'Later,' I said, giving Uilleam a warning look as I reached up to where Paen was waiting to haul me up a big rock.

We reached the outcropping where Pilar and Clare stood without any mishaps.

'Let her go,' Paen ordered, nodding toward Clare.

Pilar smiled and released Clare, who took two steps to the side, then turned and slapped Pilar as hard as she could.

'That's for shooting my dress, you demonic twit!' she told him to his startled face before storming over to Paen and me.

'Her dress?' Pilar asked us.

I shook my head. 'Honestly, you don't want to go there.'

'It was a Versace!' came the outraged reply from where Clare was standing behind me.

Pilar closed his eyes for a moment, wearing an expression that was identical to one I'd seen frequently on Paen's face. I thought about pointing that out, but decided it wasn't something Paen needed to know at that moment. 'If you don't mind, I'm rather anxious to have the Jilin God. Could we get on with it?'

'We can if you answer a couple of questions first,' I said, taking Paen's hand. Just touching him toned down the howl of pain inside me that was my ever-present companion.

Pilar glanced at the sky again and gave another shrug. Beppo gave a little squeak and leaped from Pilar to Paen, quickly scaling his arm, jumping across him to land on my shoulder. I gave the monkey a stern look. 'You didn't tell me you belonged to him,' I said, nodding toward Pilar.

'He is a familiar—he does not speak,' Pilar said, as if I honestly expected the monkey to answer. 'What questions do you wish to ask of me?'

'Where is the Jilin God?' Paen asked, his fingers tightening around mine. Beppo wrapped his tail around my throat and began to pick through my hair, looking for mites.

'Within grasp in the beyond.'

'Why did you zap me into the place between realities? Were you afraid of what I was going to tell Caspar?'

Pilar looked at me with unemotional black eyes. 'I am afraid of nothing. It was not my intent to push you into the web; I simply wanted the statue. I didn't realize you had it until I touched you.'

'Are you working for your master, or for yourself?' Paen asked.

You took my question!

There are plenty left for him to answer.

Pilar laughed. I didn't think demons could laugh, but he did, a mirthless, cold laugh, one that sent chills down my back. 'I have no master.'

'Wait a second—you do, too. Caspar said you were his minion, that he hired you to drag me in to see him, amongst other things. He's a demon lord, you're a demon—that makes him your master.'

'Do you not yet understand?' Pilar asked, looking at me with an expression of something that looked a lot like disappointment. 'The being you know as Caspar Green is not my master—he is my enemy. He tried to capture me, and failed. He tried to have me thrown down from the heavens, and failed. He has sought my destruction his entire life, and now he seeks to regain his former strength in order to rule this world. I am sworn to allow neither.'

'But… you were working for him,' I pointed out, wondering just how many surprises I could take in a one- week period.

Pilar gave me another disappointed look. 'He did not recognize me in this form.'

'Oh.'

Paen's fingers tightened even more around mine until the grip was almost painful. 'You are the sworn enemy of Yan Luowang, the god of death.'

'Yes,' Pilar said. I noticed he didn't give Paen a disappointed look.

'He attempted to have you thrown out of heaven.'

Paen said, and with his words, something struck a chord in me.

Figured it out yet, sweetheart?

Wait a sec… thrown out of heaven?

That's what he said.

I bit my lip as I looked closely at Pilar. He looked human, absolutely mortal, except for the cold that seemed to roll off him like a dense fog. 'Caspar said you were a kung, a Chinese water demon.'

'I am many things. That is just one part of what makes me a whole.'

The pieces of the puzzle fell together with a snap that I could have sworn was audible. 'Were you, by any chance, held prisoner in a stone prison for fifteen hundred years?'

Pilar smiled.

'You're Sun Wukong, aren't you? The monkey god? The subject of the Jilin statue? The one Buddha released, the one who became a champion against demons.'

'And their lords. Now I seek to stop Yan Luowang, whatever the cost such an action may demand.' Pilar made a polite little bow. 'And you, Beloved, will do very nicely as the blood price.'

Chapter 19

'I thought you were supposed to be the sacrifice?' Clare groused as she took my hand. 'I don't see why I have to come along.'

I looked beyond her to Paen, giving him a small, hopeful smile. He didn't return it.

'You have to pull me into the beyond. Evidently since I'm soulless, I can't enter or leave it on my own, but