(16) Two vampires, a ghoul and a shifter.

"If I'm correct, this should be the place," Piers said. They were standing on top of the fallen stones at the far corner of the castle from the gatehouse arch. He studied the map as Linden shown the light on it, and then checked it against what was left of the exterior walls. "Which means the stairs ought to be right about here?"

Linden nodded. "I'd say so." He took a pair of heavy gloves from his backpack, pulling them on. After Piers had dug his out and donned them, they started moving the smaller stones.

Once they had the majority of them piled on top of the rubble close to the outer wall, they began work on the larger ones, using the pry bars to loosen them and then hefting or pushing them out of the way.

"We do this enough times I'm going to end up as buff as Helmut," Linden said with a laugh.

"He's definitely no slouch in that department," Piers agreed.

"So you noticed?" Linden wasn't certain if he was amused or jealous.

"Lin, he was standing there in all his glory, how could I not?"

"True." Going back to the large stone he was working on, he said, "A little help here?"

Between them, they shifted it and then let out whoops of excitement.

"We found it!" Piers crowed with a grin.

"Well, we found the start," Linden pointed out, aiming the flashlight down into the hole.

There were stairs, true, but covered with rubble and some close to the top were totally missing.

"This is when I wish that I was old enough to have telekinetic abilities," Piers said as he knelt above the hole.

"We'll just have to do it one piece at a time is all." Linden propped the flashlight between two stones so that it lit the stairs without falling in, and then lay down on his stomach to start lifting out the first of the broken pieces of stone.

Between them, at the end with Piers using his superior strength to hold Linden by his ankles so that he could reach the next bits, they managed to clear the stairs for about six feet down before Piers pointed out that it was time to return home.

"Let's put that one stone back over the hole, just in case," Linden suggested.

"Good idea. If anyone comes out here they'll still know someone was messing around, but hopefully they'll figure it was humans who either quit because they couldn't move it, or decided there was nothing here to start with once they got down to the dirt."

They moved the stone back into place, piling a few smaller ones around it, before starting back to the gatehouse exit. As they reached it they paused, then as one moved deep into the shadows.

"You feel it too," Linden barely whispered.

"Yes. Someone's here but, damn it, I don't see them and I can't sense who or what. Just—I know we're being watched now."

"But not before."

"No. It just started. Let's get out of here. We can, maybe, do something tomorrow to draw them out."

Linden nodded as he slid through the shadows from the gatehouse arch into the trees. "Whoever or whatever they are."