"Ash? The grass is on fire."

"Really badly?" I asked without looking down. One of the side effects of using my mental sight was that I pulled some of Drake's dragon fire as a form of power. Unfortunately I didn't have the control he had, and it tended to get away from me.

"Not bad. Just a ring around you. But it's a good thing those two nuns next to you are already dead or they'd be barbecue."

I spun around. Two ghostly nuns stood right behind me, their faces eerily semitransparent ovals in the dark of the evening. As I stared in horror, one of them stretched a beseeching white hand toward me. "Criminy! Why didn't you tell me they were right—ow!"

"You're standing in the middle of the fire," Jim said helpfully.

I jumped out of the four-inch-thick barrier of fire and stomped my foot in the cool grass to put out the flames that licked the toes of my shoes. "Dammit, these are new! Why didn't you tell me they were there?"

"I thought you knew."

I eyed the two see-through nuns a bit nervously. I'd never seen a ghost before. What if they went all ghoulish and crawling with maggots on me? "Do you think they're here just to say hi? Or are they like sentinels or something, trying to keep me away from the ruins? Ghosts aren't evil, are they?"

"Who knows, maybe, and what planet are you living on? Ghosts are ghosts, nothing more."

"Oh, thank you. That's a fat lot of help. What do you think they want?"

Jim looked at the ghosts. Their images wavered in the heat of the fire. "Dunno. You could ask them."

"Ask them? You mean they'll talk to me? But I'm a Guardian. Almost. Can Guardians talk to ghosts, too?"

"You can talk to whoever you want to if you know how," Jim said with a disinterested sniff. "They probably want you to do something for them so they can find their rest. That's the usual modus operandi of ghosts. You going to take care of that fire?"

"I don't have time for ghosts," I said, wringing my hands, stopping myself when I realized what I was doing. Only Gothic romance heroines wrung their hands. I was a modern, proficient, professional woman, one whose life had no room for hand-wringing. "I have to get that stupid amulet back. Then I have to find the hermit and figure out what this horrible ritual is that I have to pass in order to find a mentor, not to mention finding said mentor, figuring out just what the devil Drake is doing here and who that woman is who slinks around like she has snake hips, as well as why she gets all touchy-feely with Drake."

Jim snickered.

"I'm sorry," I told the two ghosts. I pulled out the planner notebook from my purse and showed them the entries for the next few days. "I just don't have room for ghost problems in my schedule. But if you like, I can mention you to some of the other GODTAM people, and perhaps one of them would come out here and take care of whatever it is you need taken care of."

The ghosts shimmered sadly, regret and sorrow seeming to leak out of them and wrap around me.

"Look," I said, pointing to the notebook. "No time, see? Busy Aisling."

A woeful dirge drifted on the upper reaches of the evening breeze.

"Maybe they don't speak English?" I said to Jim before turning back to the ghosts, dredging through my memory for the appropriate phrase. "Kfiszonjuk, hogy nem dohdnyzik."

Jim began coughing. The nuns shimmered some more, a bit aggressively this time.

"Well, sheesh," I said, closing my notebook and tucking it away in my purse. "I'm sorry if my apology—"

"You said, and I quote, 'Thank you for not smoking.' "

"—if my request that they ... er ... not smoke didn't go down well, but I—I—oh hell!"

"Abaddon."

"Abaddon! Right. I'll pencil you in for Saturday morning, right after breakfast. I was going to get an herbal massage, but I'll come here instead. Is that copasetic with you guys?"

The ghostsI figures wavered for a moment as if they were considering it, then they slowly dissolved into the night.

"I'll take that as a yes," I grumbled as I turned to face the gardens and stretch of woodland that ran down the island, my mental vision seeing only shadows of the things not touched by the Otherworld. A flash of silver slipped through the trees, resolving itself into the figure of a man walking toward us. It had to be Gabriel. "There he is. Does he look like he has the amulet?"

"You're the one with super-vision, not me. You going to let the place bum down or what?"

"Oh." My vision returned to normal as I glanced back at the ring of fire that was burning merrily. As had happened before when I used my Guardian abilities to see, a pang of regret whispered through me, leaving me mourning the fact that the world looked so much drearier and mundane in reality, "Put it out for me, would you, Jim? I'm going to go see if Gabriel got my amulet back."

"Put it out?" Jim asked, its voice rising as I loped off toward the distant figure. "Just how do you expect me to do that without a fire extinguisher?"

"Pee on it," I yelled over my shoulder.

The last sight I had of the demon was its lifting a back leg and hopping around the fire. Considering the amount of watering Jim did on bushes whenever I took it on waikies, I knew it would have no difficulty in putting out a small fire.

"I realized as soon as I saw you coming toward me that I don't know your name," Gabriel said as I ran up to him.

"It's Aisling. Did you find the guy who stabbed me? Did you get my amulet back?"

Gabriel made a courtly bow, white teeth flashing against the darkness of his skin as he smiled at me. We had met near a stone path that cut across the island, a streetlamp flooding the ground with a pool of yellow sodium light. Even with that dim illumination, I could see the flash of molten silver in his eyes as he held out his hand to me. "It is my extreme pleasure to meet you, Aisling the mate."

"You found it!" I yelled, relief filling me as I snatched the crystal amulet from his hand. Overjoyed, I threw my arms around him, pressing a kiss to his cheek in gratitude. "Thank you so much! Did you have any trouble with the guy? Who is he? Did you beat him to a pulp? Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

He chuckled as I hugged him again. Then he stepped away. "I had no trouble tracking the man, as he carried the scent of your blood. I'm afraid I had little time to question him about his actions, feeling you would prefer a return of your amulet to an interview with the attacker. He had two young companions waiting for him at a dock on the Pest side, so, alas, I was not able to beat him to a pulp"