Even Vampires Get The Blues

"I know that, silly," she said, snatching up a handful of wildflowers as I held out my hands, feeling for a familiar tingle that would herald a wrinkle. "But where is the statue?"

"Evidently where Pilar stashed it, somewhere around Caspar's apartment."

"Doesn't he know where he put it?"

"Yes, but things get shifted slightly in the beyond, so all he could say is that it would be somewhere near the apartment."

"But that's all the way back in town," she said, wandering over to where a silhouetted version of Pilar stood a few feet away from Paen. She waved her hand in front of his face. "They can't see us?"

"No. What you're seeing is the representation of him in the beyond. His aura is black because he has been tainted by dark powers." A little frisson of something went up my left hand as I felt along the rock face. I moved over a step, running both hands along the minute stream of power.

"Paen's aura isn't black," she said, looking at him. When you're in the beyond, people in the other reality appear shadowed slightly, as if you are viewing them through a thin veil, which I suppose is as good a simile as anything. "But he was cursed."

"He has a soul now. Ah. Here it is." I slipped my fingers into the stream, gently pulling it apart until there was a shimmering portal wide enough to allow a person through.

"The statue?" Clare asked, wandering over to me.

"No, the wrinkle. Come on, I don't know if it'll stay open once I go through it."

"Wrinkle? What's that?"

I hauled her in after me. It was like walking through a faint field of electricity. One moment we were on the side of a cliff in the Lammermuir Hills; the next we were standing at the end of the street on which Caspar's apartment was located.

"How did you do that?" Clare asked, quickly stuffing a petal in her mouth.

I shot her an exasperated look. "Didn't you ever watch any Star Trek shows? It's a wrinkle in the time/space continuum. Or something like that—I'm not quite sure what the technical name for it is. All I know is you can use the wrinkles to travel to another area in the beyond. You take that side of the street, I'll do this one."

Needless to say, Clare was too overwhelmed to do much but follow me as I searched the sidewalk and area surrounding the steps leading into Caspar's building.

"Crapbeans," I said, shoving a garbage can back under the stone steps leading up to the doorway. I dusted off my hands, giving the building a wary look. "I guess this means we're going to have to go inside."

"Oooh," she said, her eyes big. "Will he notice us, do you think?"

"I'm not sure. He's a demon lord, so he shouldn't be able to see into the beyond, but he's also a god, so who knows what the extent of his powers are?" I pushed down the feeling of dread that rose as I started up the stairs.

All right, sweetheart?

The warm glow of Paen's being filled me. I am now, I answered, smiling at him but unable to stop the sharp pang of regret. If only things were as they had been…

We'll get it back, love. We'll get them both back, he promised me.

I took a deep breath, sent a heartfelt prayer to let us all get through this without any more tragedies being inflicted, and opened the door to the apartments.

"Don't you have to press the buzz… oh!" Clare sucked in her breath as she followed me into the building, rubbing her arms and shivering.

"We're not restricted by the boundaries of our reality in the beyond," I said, shivering as well.

Caspar's apartment might be on the third floor, but his presence turned the inside of the building black as night, seeping into every corner, filling it with a veritable miasma of dense, inky being. The only light we had was that coming off of Clare and myself—Clare's pure soul providing a halo of light around her, while faint sunlight seemed to gently glow from my skin.

"No wonder my elf senses were going berserk here," I said, rubbing the back of my neck where the hairs were standing on end.

Clare said nothing, but grabbed my hand. We climbed the stairs in silence, carefully making our way through the darkness, doing our best to search each inch of the landings, stairs, and hallways as we came to them.

"Well," I said what seemed like an eternity later as I stood outside a door labeled 12-C. "I guess we're going to have to go in and see if it's right under Caspar's nose."

"Oh, no," Clare said, backing down the hallway. "There is no way I'm going into that apartment."

"I don't think he can see into the beyond," I said, biting my lip. "We should be safe enough."

"No. Absolutely not. And I think you're insane for even thinking about going in there."

"Well, I'm not too wild about the idea myself, in case you hadn't noticed." I thought for a minute. "What we need is a distraction, something to grab Caspar's attention in case he can see us."

"How are you going to do that?" she asked, her face puckered with worry.