Chapter 5: Little Ghouls

"Is she upset?" Aiden asked quickly, dropping his things then turning to Sally so that he could check her over and make sure there was no evidence of emotional abuse.

"I'm fine, Aiden." Sally bristled. She didn't like being coddled, though she had to admit she could feel the pent up tension lessening now that she had left the office, "Just her usual. She's not pleased with Mitchell though."

"Not surprised," Josh added, "Guy's not very smart about talking back to the Mother of all Vampires."

"Shuush." Aiden shifted his eyes once around the room to see if anyone could overhear them. Then he said, "This isn't the best place to gossip."

"I was just saying…" Josh trailed off.

"I'm half shocked that the Family lets the two of you in, let alone likes you. Did you hear what they did to Mitchell's roommate back at Bristol?"

"Okay so I give him props for having a werewolf roommate."

"It's true then?"

"It's what Mitchell was fighting with Mother about." Aiden turned to look, "He seems to think that we have him and we're keeping him to be used against him."

"Are you?"

"Not as far as I know. Olfaq denied it. Then again, maybe we just don't know. We've picked up a lot of different strays and haven't really checked up on their identities."

"You ought to have a system for that," thought Josh, "What if one of them were some famous or rich person? Then you get investigations, trail of bodies, and then open secret of the vampire society running the heart of Boston's underground."

"The family takes care of that kind of thing."

"But you can't keep track of what poor person you've abducted in the night?" the werewolf's question was redundant, and the ghost liked it.

"Josh's got a point."

"Thank you, Sally."

Aiden rolled his eyes, "Alright, I'll bring it up on my next available opportunity." Aiden slung the pack onto his back, "You ready for this?"

"Yeah, okay, can't get much more ready."

Sally gave the both of them a 'I missed the first half of the meeting'-look and said, "Ready for what?"

"Olfaq wants us to bring Josh to the cage. I think it's a power trip—to remind him his place at the family."

"You're going into the Cage?" Sally had to clamp her mouth shut when the boys shushed her, "Why on earth would you think that is a good idea… again?"

"Look, I've already been there, I'm pretty well prepared to see what I can see. Who knows, maybe they'll let me take one home?"

"If we can free one from the Cage, I'm betting it'll be Mitchell's friend George."

"Awww. You guys almost make it sound like you're shopping for an ASPCA rescue."

Josh, unintentionally, growled at her and she made the motions of pinching his cheeks and puckering her lips, "whad a cute widdle puppy."

"You coming to the Cage with us?"

"I guess. Mother asked me to check up on something first, but if I'm free I'll come." She thought about her last visit and couldn't shake the image of bloodlust vampires holding fists of twenties like they were watching some hooker fight a monkey to the death. "Then again, I might not."

"Imagine how I feel…" agreed Josh dryly.

All of a sudden Sally felt bad for teasing Josh about being a house pet.

Mitchell finished signing his work and then turned to move near Sally's housemates. When he saw her he hesitated, as if he'd seen a ghost… which he did, so in some ways he acted appropriately.

Sally smiled waved at him and this seemed to calm him a bit. He may have been expecting someone else. Mitchell had a very angular face, his hair could use a comb but he himself was not a hard thing to look at. She shrugged, gave her room mates a ghost wave then turned to go out to the garden—she caught sight of a ghost trail though as it misted from the foot of the sweeping staircase and re materialized by the window.

"Bye guys," she said, not letting herself lose sight of the other apparition. She let herself fade through the space, to the staircase. From where the ghost had been, there was a very good view of the foyer, they had all been in clear eyeshot. She whistled herself to the window but by the time she reached it, the rain was pouring, the sill was wet, and there was no evidence of the other ghost anywhere.

"Hello hello-o?" Sally called out, rain or no rain, she wouldn't get wet, but sometimes she thought she could feel the raindrops as they passed through her. "Hello ghost hotline?"

The night was blustery in the living world; all that wind and rain and heat flurried up in the late autumn air. In the spirit world, though, climate depended on something else; the moon, the emotions, simple magic. And despite the fury that was darkened with blistery rain, the spirit world was still, a bit muggy, and calm.

"Who are you?" she mustn't have been from around here, since she spoke like she came out of some Jane Austin novel. "Do you work with the vampires in Boston?"

Sally giggled, "Say 'vampires' again."

The darkened and empty courtyard repeated, "Vampires."

The way the British pronounce things make Sally giddy. She let herself get excited from the word then finally gathered herself and said, "No. I'm friends with a few though."

"That Mother woman," the other said, Sally heard the unpleasant undertone.

"I'm not her friend. I don't think she has any. But she likes to have me near her, since I'm a ghost and she can't expect me to tell tales."

There was a quiet. Obviously this joke didn't appeal to her new friend.

"Mother lost her daughter about eight months ago. Her daughter from when she was a human. So I think having me around helps her cope. At least she can't abuse me."

"What happened?"

"It's a long story…" Sally didn't want to recount the starcrossed nature of Suren and Aiden's relationship to a total stranger. The blood. The death. The attempts to escape the life only resulting in Suren's weak willpower to stay or go – her own murder at the hands of her own mother. "But I'd rather talk about you, and not my roommate's ex."

"Your room mate was dating The Mother?" There was a flicker of shock behind her and Sally turned to see if the apparition had appeared. She didn't but the ghost of her spirit shimmered a little where she must have stood.

"Aiden? Oh god no, he dated her Mother's daughter." She thought about it, realized it was more of a business proposition with sex and feelings, then amended "Or the vampire equivalent of dating…"

This time the ghost did flash into sight. She was taller than Sally by quite a lot. And had the perfect skin, the natural messy warm brown hair. Bright eyed. "You live with a vampire?"

"Well… it's not like, a live in boyfriend or anything like that. He's just a roommate."

"A room mate!?" The glee on her face put Sally off a bit. She assumed that all ghosts who lived in houses somewhere lived with people in said houses. Normal people would only keep an empty haunted house up for the gimmick. And if every ghost was a gimmick, then the joke would not be funny.

"Well I guess more like one of the guys who lives in the apartment I haunt? It's not like I pay rent or utilities or anything like that."

"Are you good friends with these American vampires?"

Sally realized she was going around in circles. She rubbed her neck then slowly repeated, "I just said they're not really my friends."

"Well you know them right? Someone I followed to America got kidnapped here, by vampires."

"Are you Sure-e?" Sally looked at this stranger as she pranced. She seemed high strung, even for Sally. "That John Mitchell guy inside was saying something similar."

"You know Mitchell!?" her excitement pulled her atoms apart, and she took a second to re-materialize as young woman and while she did Sally stood watching the rain as it fell from the sky.

"I saw him get his ass handed to him by the Mother of all vampires."

"She's not actually the 'Mother of vampires'. She's one of the youngest in the Old Ones."

"Really?" that did interest Sally. "Wait, okay first of all: who are you missing? And why do you think vampires took him?"

"Because I have seen him!"

"Yeah, yeah okay," Sally was finding it hard to keep the other girl from hyperventilating. She wasn't even sure that ghosts needed air. The theory was becoming moot, for the stranger didn't seem to need air when she ranted. "Re-WIND, sister. Hi my name is Sally Malik. Nice to meet you."

The other ghost gasped. Suppose she did need air after all. "I'm Annie."

"Okay good. Now what can I do for you to help you find your door?"

"Oh, I have no idea where my door is." She didn't seem to think the door was all that important. "But you can help me with my friend's problem. Just ask your American vampire buddies for a favour. Or just beg with them to let him go. Or maybe she could just bust him out… But that might get Mitchell into trouble with Snow. Snow must know what's going on… does he? Do you think?"

Sally let the other specter talk to herself before she finally said, "Look, the vampires from the Boston family have my friends in some sort of a debt. So I can't actually ask anything of them. But if I knew the problem, I could help explain the situation."

This caught Annie by surprise, "Can I show you?"

The eagerness in her eyes made Sally take a half step back, "Yes. By all means—", she had wanted to say 'show me'. But it was too late. Annie had latched on to Sally's aura and dragged her through the vale of darkness. The poor ghost felt her head spiral into the supernatural around her, stuffed and stretched—the earth changed poles, spun in a completely new direction and then came to a jarring, halting stop. She had to use all of her energy to keep her molecules together and scrambled for one discombobulated second to decipher where she was. Still near the hotel's grounds. About two stories under the lobby and east.

Unlike the still spiritual weather outside, where all was calm and dead, the thick of evil buzzed like a heat in the quiet dark room. It was loud in here.

"Oh my God!" Sally was not pleased, "A little warning next time! Geeze." But the other ghost was not listening. Instead she had rushed to the darkest corner of the tiny cellar.

"George! I'm here. I'm here!"

'George' as it were, was naked on the floor of a narrow cage. It was long enough to lay flat in, but not enough to curl in. It was not tall enough to stand in either, the top of the cage came to Sally's shoulders. Blood, dry and rancid, painted the tarp on the floor of the cell and the figure was trembling with a chain on his wrists.

Sally ducked down to see the figure, and nearly stood through the cage at the sight of him. He couldn't have been older than 30, skinny, scrawny, and covered in goo. The bone from his femor stitched through the light and the skin on half of his face was a newly healed pink.

"Mitchell?" even when he spoke it shuddered like the very voice itself was broken.

"Not yet," Annie said, "I brought help."

Sally did stand up. "I am help?" George looked up at her and she knew instantly he was a 'wolf. "You're the werewolf that Mitchell was talking about! His room mate!"

"Housemate," Annie said. "and yeah. You have got to help. We're still in the hotel grounds. Under the hotel grounds, they put him here. He was more cut before but he heals fast. Still the fever is getting worse and he needs medicine."

"Medicine? He need's to get the hell out of here." Sally touched the bars, there were flecks of silver shards on them, and she could tell it was specifically designed for the werewolf captives. "Hold on. I'll go tell Aiden."

"Hurry."

"Please lady." And Sally materialized to the Cage. She tried to find somewhere inconspicuous so she would not be seen by anyone, and promptly confronted Hope, as she snuck around with a butterfly knife in her hand. "Oh."

Hope's stared startled wide eyes at the apparition of Sally before very cautiously saying, "Hi."