Chapter 18
Zhen
I greeted Tiffany and Gramps at the small airstrip with a big smile and arms flung wide. “Come hug me, you beautiful bastards.”
Tiffany laughed and bear-hugged me immediately. Gramps chuckled as he hugged me too, both of them looking excited to be here. Then again, how often did you get the chance to go toe to toe with something this famously haunted? Glad someone was excited. I mostly dreaded life right now.
Tiffany was in jeans, white shirt, and Renaissance vest, her hair in a thick braid.
She was the cute pixie type, in my opinion, with those big brown eyes and upturned nose.
Gramps still dressed clean-cut, a holdover from his priest days, with his grey hair cut close to the scalp, beard neatly trimmed, the works.
He even wore a button-down shirt and slacks like he was going to deliver a sermon later.
I batted my eyelashes at Gramps, hopeful. “Gramps, do you have a game plan for us?”
“I have an idea or three. Depends on where the demon is now and what it is trying to do.”
“Load in, then, you two are staying with me. We’ll drop off luggage then head to Grandma’s.”
I helped throw bags into the bed of the truck. It was a good thing these two hadn’t tried going through a normal commercial flight because, hot damn, these suitcases weighed enough to sink the Titanic. Jeezus, what was in here, bricks?
Actually, I wouldn’t put it past them.
We loaded into my truck, Gramps riding shotgun, and Tiffany in the back seat. I buzzed with excitement at having these two in town, even if the circumstances were shit. “I haven’t seen you in a good year. How’s life?”
“Not as exciting as yours.” Gramps stared pointedly at my chest. “I heard you got accidentally bound to a woman. How is that going?”
“Bond making things difficult aside, amazingly well. You’ll see why when you meet Kris. She’s awesomesauce on top of kick-ass cake.”
Tiffany cackled. “You’ll love her, Gramps.”
“I knew you two would get on like a house on fire, Tiffy.” I meant every word. “She consumes books like you do. I had to build her a whole library to keep up with her book buying habits. Granted, you read different things, but still.”
“Readers jive with readers, it’s a thing,” Tiffany said like it was common sense. “I mentioned to Gramps about the new social media page, but you can probably explain it a bit better.”
“Oh, Kris started it up for us. She’s the brains of the operation.
It was initially just a way to get the word out so people could call me directly if something went wrong, but then she started doing little instructional videos.
How to sage a house properly, for instance.
We’ve gotten a lot of comments thanking us, as it’s solved ghostly problems for people.
Hell, I had a kid message me the other day, saying he had something haunting his house and harming his family.
Texas panhandle, so I couldn’t fly out there and nix it, but I knew a medium in the area and got her over there. That kind of networking saves lives.”
Gramps made an interested noise. “I could do some instructional videos. I think it is a fantastic idea.”
What was this? A Hallelujah chorus was breaking out behind me. “Gramps, I would give you my right pinky for that kind of content. You have extensive knowledge of wards and protective measures, way more than us average Joes.”
“That is not difficult,” he drawled. “You hardly paid attention through some of those classes.”
“Why does everyone rake me over the coals for my youth?”
“Probably because we are tired of you getting hurt.”
“Ouch. Deserved, but ouch.”
Tiffany cleared her throat pointedly. “I’d like to weigh in, too. But let’s talk about content and social media after we’ve taken down a demon doll.”
“About that, though, how do you feel about live streaming our showdown with Annabelle?”
I felt the weighted stares against the side and back of my head.
Were they staring at me because it was a bad idea?
Because they were completely against it?
No idea, couldn’t stare at their faces while keeping my eyes on the road.
Well, I could, but I didn’t think these two wanted to suddenly go off-roading.
“How could we possibly do that?” Gramps sounded puzzled. “I do not think it wise to have people chasing after us with cameras.”
Ohhh, the logistics hurt their brains. “No, no, we’d strap a GoPro camera onto your chest. Kris bought, like, a dozen of them, anticipating we’d be doing livestreams of battles at some point.
We wanted to film battles mostly for entertainment because, let’s face it, that’s a whole new level of reality TV.
But also so people can see what we actually fight and how hard it is.
Provide a better understanding of what we’re doing.
I agree we should capture the fight on camera, y’know?
For one thing, how often do you battle Annabelle. ”
Tiffany snorted in agreement. “Truly, that’s a solid reason right there.”
“But also, if Annabelle somehow escapes again and a different group has to take the demon down, they’ve got an example of what worked for us, or what didn’t work, and can plan accordingly.”
Gramps stroked his short, greying beard. “Also a valid point. I think, too, a third reason is if we go down, those watching know to send help.”
“I’m trying not to jinx us by saying shit like that. I don’t want to manifest it.”
“Still, it is a good reason. I like the idea, Zhen. We should do it.”
I hadn’t expected a man near retirement to be okay with streaming things online, but hey, awesome.
“Has anyone arrived yet?” Tiffany asked.
“Yeah, actually, the twins are here. Kris and Jo Jo are picking them up from the airport now.”
Gramps tapped on the center console, his tone thoughtful. “Who else is coming, again?”
“Reed, Morgan, Bailey, River, and Kelly are all coming in. My father’s also promising to help. Oh! And Jo Jo’s got some of Meemaw’s warding bags.” In this small community, everyone knew everyone.
“Ahhh.” Gramps had the air of a man well pleased. “Perfect. That was the final piece of my plan I had not quite figured out. Cornering it, subduing it, that we can do. But I was stumped on how to transport the doll back to its box afterward.”
“You think a warding bag will hold it?”
“Oh, not for long, not much can. But the bag should buy us the hour we need to put the demon back in its box.”
“You should totally tell Meemaw you used one of her bags for this purpose,” Tiffany encouraged. “She’ll be delighted.”
“Hell yeah she would, and she’ll have every right.” In fact, mental note to me, make sure someone sets up the live stream for her. She’d get a kick out of watching us take Annabelle down. “Uh, one thing, though. The box is gone.”
Dead silence.
Gramps groaned. “Likely incinerated it in order to escape, I bet. Local priests would not be as well versed in warding craft. I am surprised by this event but not. Well. This will not do.”
“Dad can craft us a new one, if you can give him instructions?”
“I will do so. We need that box.”
“I’ll let you talk to Dad and handle that.”
My phone rang through the truck’s dash and I hit Accept. “Heya, Bailey! You landed already?”
Bailey’s voice flowed out through the truck’s speakers. “I have, and I’ve got Kelly here with me.”
“Awesome. I’m about halfway to my house, but let me drop off passengers, and I can swing back around to get you.”
“No, no, we can grab a taxi or something. Where are we going?”
“My old apartment building. Top floor is cleaned out and ready for you. River’s staying with you guys too, if that’s okay.”
“Sure, peachy keen. Anyone else arrive yet?”
Gramps spoke up. “Hello, Bailey. Tiffany and I have arrived.”
Bailey let out a cheer. “I love you two so much right now. I didn’t want to fight Annabelle without you guys. I knew it would make Tiffy super sad.”
“Awww, Bailey, you do think of me.” Tiffany blew kisses, making Bailey laugh.
A text message popped up from River, saying she was one short flight away from arrival, with an ETA. Beautiful. “Bailey, River said she’ll land in about an hour and a half.”
“Which means we’re only waiting on Reed and Morgan, right?” Tiffany asked her grandfather, “Should we wait on them before discussing plans?”
“I think we should not. Just in case we need to move. We cannot hinge plans on their arrival.”
“They have another two to three hours on the road,” I said. “I want them here, absolutely, but Gramps is right. We’re barely keeping Annabelle away from ley lines as it is, we need to be ready to move out.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Tiffany blew out a breath, her lips doing that funny vibrating thing.
“Sounds like I’m walking into a party. Welp, see you soon!” Bailey hung up.
Tiffany muttered, “Still, I hope it doesn’t come to that. Then, when River lands, let’s gather and have a good ol’ planning session.”
“The conference room at my grandmother’s building has been set up as a war room for us. Grandma’s making dinner for us while everyone’s here.”
“We will stop by your house long enough to drop off luggage, then.”
“Home-cooked Chinese,” Tiffany said in a dreamy voice. “Yes, please.”
The evening traffic was kind so we arrived at my house soon after, the sun beginning to dip.
I helped bring personal luggage up, showed them their rooms and such.
Then I ran down and made sure cats were fed before loading people back up and going across town once more toward my grandmother’s building.
I didn’t find anyone on the ground floor, so we went up to my grandmother’s apartment on the second floor, finding the door wide open and people chatting inside. Ah-ha, the party had been moved up here.