Chapter 15
I felt madder than a sick alligator with a sore tooth. How dare the ghosts target the weakest link of us all? Gwyn was already overwhelmed, I was already feeling bad about dragging her into this impossible case, and then that asshat decided it would be fun to scare her.
No siree, not on my watch.
I also kicked myself, because really, I should have expected them to go after her.
Weakest link, after all. But I honestly hadn’t thought standing in the foyer would get her so quickly targeted.
We’d barely been in there five minutes when hell broke loose.
I kicked myself again. From this point forward, I must not assume anything was safe or fine.
Just assume the worst and plan accordingly.
Brandon took Gwyn out for a breather, which was honestly the better call while we waited on everyone else to arrive. It might only be for ten minutes, but I promised myself when she came back in, we’d have proper protections up around her.
Hannah sidled up next to me and murmured in my ear, “We’ve got to retrain her instincts from flight to fight.”
“I know,” I murmured back. It could be done.
Hell, it had been done with me. I’d been in flight mode most of my life before I met Beau.
He’d really spent most of the time teaching me how to react when spookems bum-rushed me.
I’d need to do the same with Gwyn, but this didn’t seem the right timing for it.
There were things in this town even I wasn’t sure I could tackle, so I didn’t want her standing her ground against something out of her league.
She didn’t know enough to judge yet. “Hannah, I feel so bad.”
She put a hand on my shoulder in consolation. “You did protect her, Mack. She’ll be in danger from time to time, the job demands it. Best she get experience, learn how to combat it. Don’t second-guess yourself or try to keep her safely away.”
“I just…don’t know how to teach her some things.”
“Every teacher experiences that moment. Every student learns a little differently, after all. Just do your best, and if you get stuck, Beau and I are always available to help. You know that.”
I felt better from her reassurance and hugged her. “Merci. Truly.”
She hugged me back, smiling warmly, which always lightened my heart. “You’ll both be fine.”
The door swung open again, but this time it was the cavalry.
I was relieved to see my friends rejoin us and walked straight to them, explaining as I moved.
“This damn place is so crazy it could have been an insane asylum. I do not like it one bit. Also, Eli, we’re seeing lots of grey trails, but there’s also a dark charcoal one. I’ll bet you anything that’s Joey.”
She looked about her, squinting. “Yeah, I see three just from where I’m standing.”
Beau joined us. “Eli, I’m thinking we need to stick together and tackle this place one floor at a time.”
“Yup, I agree. Basement and then go up?”
“That’s my plan. Then we’re not battling things from above or below.”
With everyone in agreement, people grabbed up the many salt bags, camping lanterns, and flashlights and headed down.
Brandon and Gwyn reentered, and I noticed this time Brandon had everything under the sun strapped to him.
Ready for a full-out battle, eh? Booker could have been his twin, and he had a duffel bag in hand to boot.
I kept Gwyn next to me as we walked to the basement stairs.
“Now, Gwyn, here’s the setup when we tackle big buildings like this.
We choose different spots—normally near intersecting hallways—and put salt circles down with a light source.
That way, if a ghost or several rushes us, we have a safe place to retreat to until we can handle them.
So first thing we’ll do once we’re down there is lay down those circles. ”
Gwyn absorbed this information with a cant of her head. “Really? Even Eli does this?”
Eli was walking ahead of us and turned to speak over her shoulder. “Doesn’t matter how powerful you are, anyone can get overrun with enough numbers. Learned that in Scotland.”
Lachlan gave a bombastic side-eye. “Like you Yanks are doing any better here. People in glass houses shouldn’t throw hand grenades with a bungee cord attached.”
I laughed. The Highland case had definitely been out of the ordinary. “In any case, ma petite chère, it’s all right to retreat if you get overwhelmed. Just make sure before you really start the case that you have a safe place to retreat to.”
Gwyn lifted her hand like she was in a court of law. “Got it.”
I was glad to see she’d kept her bag on her. Not only would Booker’s gift of things safeguard her, but it was also an excellent opportunity to teach her what all to do with it.
The basement stairs looked like something out of a horror movie.
They were incredibly crowded with ghosts, most of them watching us in a very eerie way, which didn’t help the nerves any.
Mine were jumping worse than frog legs in a hot pan.
We kept going, though, grimly. No one expected to enjoy today.
I just hoped a week was enough to clear the building.
Prayed, more like.
We finally reached bottom, and lord almighty, I wished we hadn’t. It was awful down here. Not just the dimness or the cloying musty smell of poor ventilation, but as bad as the main floor had been with ghost trails?
This was worse.
This was far worse.
I waved my hand in front of my face like I was trying to wave away cigarette smoke. The ghost trails filled up the spaces in between the ghosts, so it felt like I was walking into the London fog on speed. Honest to god, it felt claustrophobic. “Good lord, what the hell!”
Davina drawled behind me, “Took the words right from my mouth, mate. What the hell? If the basement’s like this, what’s the attic like?”
“Can’t even see anything proper,” Lachlan muttered. “But this space doesn’t feel like a hunch, more like a trailer.”
We all groaned but Davina shoved a finger into her cousin’s ribs, making him squirm. “You. No borrowin’ trouble before we can get to it. Right, then, who’s doing what?”
Beau lifted a hand. “I say let’s try to pass the good ghosts on first. It’ll make it less crowded down here. I’ll start up a path.”
Brandon took off his backpack and handed it over. “Tea lights and anything else you might need.”
“Bless.” Beau took it happily.
“Gwyn and I will lay down some salt circles.” Mostly because I wanted to teach her how to do it and I wanted her to have a very firm grasp of where those were. “But Davina, please don’t push yourself. If you start feeling bad, please just retreat.”
“I’m not a strong enough Medium to go all day,” she admitted. “So I likely will, but I will help for at least a while.”
Lachlan raised his hand. “How about I set up seals around the stairwell? Keep the ghosties from running.”
Quinn pointed at him. “Great thought. Do that. I don’t want to have to chase these bastards down later. You got the stuff you’ll need?”
“Just now thought of it, so no?”
“Booker does,” Quinn said with complete confidence.
Booker shrugged and started pulling things out of his bag.
Eli looked about her. “I want to explore, get my eyes on things. I’ll exorcise anything I come across in the process.
I have a bad feeling this basement goes in every direction and there’s nooks and crannies here we need to know about. So nothing hides in them.”
Davina pursed her lips and made a decisive nod. “Beau, I’ll help you set up and pass some ghosts.”
“Sure, I welcome the help.”
We seemed to have a breakdown of jobs, so we split up.
At least a little. Once we got everything set up, we’d work as a more cohesive force, but Eli was right about getting the lay of the land.
It wasn’t just one big room down here, but a bunch of compartmentalized rooms. I had to wonder, why the walls?
What had been the purpose of this level?
Gambling dens? Speakeasy? Probably at some point it had been a little of everything.
Brandon had a sixty-pound bag of salt on one shoulder, following us as I hunted for good spots to put these circles down.
“Gwyn, first rule of the circles, put them adjacent, not on top. So, say, base of the stairs is a great place to put a circle, because we’re constantly caught between climbing up or fighting something off.
But you don’t want to put it square and center. ”
Gwyn thought over my words for a second, then walked to the side of the stairs and lifted her hands to form a sort of measurement. “So here?”
“Not a bad spot,” Brandon said approvingly. “But I do worry about tripping over it when trying to access the other rooms.”
“I think it’s better on that side than the other,” I said. I pointed to the other side with its catch of random objects some employee had dropped down here. The moldy clown was nightmare material I was trying to ignore. “Too many things to trip over.”
“Oh, agreed, but I don’t want us smudging the circle as we come in and out of rooms.”
“We’ll repair it if we have to.”
With a shrug, he lowered the bag off his shoulder and started pouring it out. “Gwyn, we make circles big enough to hold at least four people standing. Since we have so many in this group, I’m making it even larger.”
“Doesn’t have to be a perfect circle,” I threw in. “Just connected, so if an oval or square works better? Do that.”
“So the shape doesn’t matter at all?” Gwyn pulled her tablet out to make a note of this.
“No, we just generally pour out circles.” I wasn’t sure why, now that she questioned it.
Likely one of those things a master had taught an apprentice, and it had gone unquestioned throughout the generations.
Many things were like that, or so I’d discovered.
I caught a ghost hovering and directed her, “See that older gentleman? Go to him, he can pass you.”
She nodded in thanks, smiled, and immediately zoomed over there.