“What’s your name?” Sera asked him.

“Yarran.”

“Ok, Yarran. I’m Sera, and this is Naomi. And we’re here to save your friend.”

Hope flickered in the ghost’s eyes. It lasted only a moment before suspicion drowned it out.

Sera tried again. “His parents hired us to save him from the vampires. Is there a way into the house that’s not guarded?” The ghost must have been all around the grounds and inside.

“No, the entrances are all guarded,” he said. “Those dirty vampires don’t let anyone pass. The only way in is to be invisible.”

“Like you?”

He shot her a smug smile. “Yes.”

“Can you make us invisible too?” Sera asked.

“Of course.” He turned up his nose at them. “But why would I?”

“Because we are going to save your friend,” Naomi said, her facade of patience beginning to crack.

The ghost folded his arms across his chest and replied cooly, “How do I know I can trust you?”

“For a non-corporeal being, he sure is thick,” Naomi muttered to Sera.

Sera kept her eyes on Yarran. “I understand if it’s too difficult for you to make us invisible. It takes some powerful magic to mask two people both visually and magically.” She sighed. “Such a feat is probably impossible for you.”

“Impossible?” the ghost repeated, indignant. He stiffened as much as someone without a physical body possibly could. “I am an old and powerful ghost. Of course I can do all that and more. And I’ll prove it to you.” He looped once around her and Naomi. The magic in the air shifted and swirled, smothering them in Otherworldly power.

Sera looked at Naomi. “We’re good.”

“I don’t feel invisible.”

“We are. Our magic signature is pretty low right now too. The vampires won’t see or feel us coming.” Probably. Demonic vampires didn’t sense magic like some mages could, but their demon part hungered for it. They could taste a hint of it in the air. Hopefully, their magic was masked enough to pass by unseen. It’s not like they had much of a choice anyway. They had to get into the building, and this ghost was their best bet.

“Follow me,” Yarran called out to them as he glided along the fence.

They hurried to catch up, dampening their steps as best they could. Their bodies might have been invisible, but they were still solid. They couldn’t pass through walls or fences. And their feet still touched the ground. Sera only hoped their steps weren’t thumping as loudly as an earthquake to the vampires’ enhanced senses.

Yarran led them to the back side of the plot, where the building was nudged between two fences. The big door there was swung wide open. Unfortunately, there were two vampires standing watch right in front of it. The ghost slid silkily between them, then turned to wave at Sera and Naomi.

As they crept forward, one of the vampires sniffed the air. “Smells funny.”

“What smells funny?” his comrade asked.

Sera and Naomi paused as the vampires both looked around.

The first vampire sneezed. “The air.”

“Smells like salt, grass, and that stinking ghost we chased off earlier.”

Yarran scowled and made a rude gesture at the back of the vampire’s head.

“No, there’s something else,” Sneezy said and sniffed again. He sneezed again too. “Fairy. And mage.”

Sera held her breath—and pushed her magic down as deep as it would go. After its month of freedom, her magic did not go willingly back into hiding. She pushed harder. Sweat beaded her brow and trickled down her neck in salty streams.

“Of course you smell fairy and mage,” Grumpy told him. “Remember what we have in our dungeon.”

“I’m remembering how much we’re getting paid for what we have in our dungeon.”

The vampires chuckled, relaxing their guard, and Sera slipped past them. Naomi came in right behind her.

“Show us the way to your friend,” Sera whispered to the ghost once they’d put some distance between them and the vampires at the door.

Yarran sped up, swerving and looping full-speed down the stairs, then through a labyrinth of hallways. Sera had to break out into a sprint to keep pace with him. Hopefully, he wouldn’t forget that she and Naomi couldn’t pass through walls.

Finally, they reached the end of a long hallway. Yarran shot inside like a comet, excited impatience lathering his magic. Sera followed, feeling the rush of vampiric magic too late. Yarran stopped so quickly that had he been solid, Sera would have knocked him over. As it was, she passed through him as she slid to a stop. An eerie chill that had nothing to do with the ghost bit at her skin. There was no boy in sight. There were, however, a dozen vampires in the room.

“No, no, no,” Yarran moaned, swaying in erratic loops as he threw up his arms in panic. “Where is he? Where have those dirty vampires taken him?”

Sera opened her mouth to soothe him—then shut it just as quickly. Nothing she could say would calm the ghost who was now throwing himself from one end of the room to the other like a handkerchief caught in a tornado. And whatever spell he’d used to make them invisible wouldn’t extend to any sound she made.

“Filthy beasts!” Yarran spat at the vampires.

He was so angry that parts of him were turning visible. Uh-oh. If he couldn’t even keep himself invisible…

“What do we have here?” said one of the vampires, turning toward Sera and Naomi.