Even Vampires Get the Blues - By Katie MacAlister Page 0,101

to the location to find them."

"What are you thinking?" Finn asked again. "What do ghosts have to do with anything? What are you looking for?"

"Are you sure they'll have a physical presence?" Paen asked. Finn punched him in the arm. "Ow. We're thinking the ghosts might be able to help us with Pilar. Now, stop beating me before I knock your lights out."

Finn grinned at him as I closed my eyes and cleared my mind, preparing myself to listen to the site.

"Well?" Paen asked, clearly as impatient as I was to get on with things.

"I don't see... oh, wait. I think maybe over there." I opened my eyes and headed around the side of the trailer cluster to a flat area that stretched upward to a rocky cliff. "Hello, Uilleam."

The big Scottish ghost turned from where he and a few of his fellow countrymen were perched on an outcropping of rocks, evidently watching the battle scene being filmed. All the men wore the same disgusted looks on their faces.

I held out my arms for him as if I was welcoming an embrace. Uilleam's face lit up. His body did the shimmering thing as he allowed himself to be grounded, striding forward to me with a calculating look in his eye. I ran for Paen and held up a hand for him to stop before he could pull me into another ghostly kiss. "Up to you, master linguist. Let's see if they're interested in helping us fight for Clare."

Four minutes later we streamed over the rocks that marked the edge of the cliff, behind us an army of ghostly Scottish warriors, all of whom were aching for a good brawl.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Finn asked. "Something out of Tolkien. Paen could be Aragorn with his army of the dead, and you could be Legolas, while I am - "

"You are going to be one sorry Moravian if you continue with that analogy," I said, giving him a look that let him know I meant what I said. "I have no compunction about decking you if I have to."

Finn laughed, but the merriment dried up a few moments later when we reached the base of the cliff.

"Sam?" Paen asked, obviously hoping for some insight on my part.

"They're here," I said, holding my hands out, palms down toward the ground. "We're at the heart of the lodestone. I can feel they're here. There's something disturbing the grounding."

"Disturbing it how?"

I tried to locate the source of the disturbance, but the waves of power coming from the location itself were muddying the feeling. "Disturbing it. Making it not happy. I can only assume it's Pilar. Demons normally avoid places strong in power from the beyond, so it makes sense that such places wouldn't like them any more than the reverse."

"Then why did he bring Clare here?" Finn asked.

"Because it provides access to the statue, naturally," a voice called down from above us.

Uilleam shouted and pointed his sword at the cliff face. Standing on a ledge about halfway up, Pilar held a knife to Clare's throat. Beppo sat chirping on a rock next to them. The ghosts roared something that made the hairs on my neck stand on end, and started swarming up the cliff.

"No!" Pilar yelled down at them, dragging Clare backward into what looked like a shallow cave. "Call them off, or I will kill the faery."

"I am not a faery," Clare snapped, trying to glare at the demon who held her by the throat. "I am a lingerie model. There is a huge difference between the two things! Why does no one else see that?"

Paen shouted something to Uilleam. The ghosts stopped their ascent, but they weren't happy about it, snarling and waving their swords around in a menacing fashion.

"She's a faery, she's immortal," I called up to Pilar. "There's no sense in threatening to kill her - you can't."

"I am so not a faery!"

"She'll be dead enough if I decapitate her," Pilar called back.

"Oh!" Clare yelled, looking even more indignant.

"All right, we've stopped the ghosts," I answered, moving a little to the side so I could have an unobstructed view of Pilar. Paen wrapped an arm around me and pulled me up tight against him. "Now, let's talk. Why do you want Clare? She doesn't have any powers except the ability to talk to flowers - "

"You are such a liar," my cousin gasped.

We all ignored her. " - and the ability to wear sackcloth and make it look