Chapter 23
Kris
People dispersed after sobering up, and while I was able to get a lot of footage done, it was in chunks throughout the day. Great footage, though, which meant a lot of editing work for me.
We still had a sword to tackle, which felt like small potatoes after dealing with Annabelle. To think I’d been so worried about a sword that acted up by knocking things off shelves occasionally. It was like a lark now, in comparison.
But we still had to deal with it, so after a day of rest, Jo Jo called for action.
We naturally had Jasha over after dinner—Jasha and I had sadly worked during the day, and he’d had to close shop before coming to the house.
Kelly had shown up to watch, I guess. She stood next to Jasha, making small talk and asking about where they should go for their date.
I was nothing more than camerawoman tonight, but it was exciting to stand on the sidelines.
Jasha’s curse problem had been like a sword hanging over our necks—pun intended—and we were all thankful to finally have a minute to turn our attention to it.
What I found surprising was having Charlotte here. She was setting up the light boxes on the other side to create a well-lit area. We were in a converted garage, after all, and it wasn’t like Zhen had designed the area with studio lighting in mind.
Once she had set up the last light, she came back to me, her voice low and confidential. “So, um, Jo Jo said it was okay for me to watch, but is it really?”
“Absolutely fine.” I checked mics and found everything charged, but paused before clipping them on people, my attention on my sister.
She looked a little nervous but intrigued.
Her eyes were mostly on Jo Jo as he walked around, setting things up.
“Did you come here to see what else his job entails?”
“Kinda, yeah.”
“Like him that much, then?”
“Well, yes.” A hint of pink danced along her cheeks. “He’s really sweet to me. And he actually communicates. I thought men only did that in romance novels!”
I started to see Jo Jo’s appeal. Then again, anything was better than the rotten bastard she’d been engaged to.
“Zhen’s just as good at communicating. I think, honestly, it’s part of them being slayers?
Communicating with your hunting party is so incredibly vital.
You don’t do it right, you might not make it out alive. ”
“Ohhh. That makes sense.” She bit her bottom lip. “Kris, is it really that dangerous? What they do.”
“I’m not sugar coating this, Char. It’s fucking dangerous. I know cops who won’t handle what Zhen hunts down. That said, they’ve literally been raised to be slayers and hunters. They know what they’re doing, and if they don’t, they know an expert to call.”
“Like with the Annabelle hunt?”
“Exactly like that.”
She nodded shallowly, absorbing my words.
“Is that a deal breaker?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I don’t think it is? I don’t want him hurt, is all.”
“It’s a fine emotional balancing point. I don’t like it when Zhen’s hurt either, but I accept that trying to chain him down to a desk would break him. Jo Jo’s the same way.”
“Yeah...yeah, I see what you mean.”
Charlotte was really growing up on me. Look at her, not sweeping things under the rug and pretending everything was fine. She was sincerely looking at Jo Jo, at what he did for a living, and taking it all in to make an informed decision. I almost knuckled a proud tear away.
Jo Jo hopped up from scribbling with chalk on the pavement. He sauntered toward us, then cozied up against Charlotte’s side, much like a golden retriever would to their favorite person. “Talking about me?”
“I wanted to know if this was something you normally handled,” Charlotte explained.
“Oh, for sure, nothing out of the norm here. I’m a curse breaker most of the time. Hunter second.”
“Is this an advanced curse?”
Jo Jo waved her concern away. “Nothing like it. The really old curses, those are the hard ones, because they’ve had years to get established and are usually linked to a pretty powerful source.
I hate those. They can take months. But this one’s only twenty years old, it’s barely got the power to do much of anything.
It’s a cakewalk. Ten-year-old me used to cut my teeth on curses like this. ”
Turning to me, Jo Jo straightened a little and added, “This will have quite the fireworks display, so I want to say something to the camera before we get started. Just to cut out any AI accusations.”
“Sounds great. Are you ready to start?”
“I am, in fact.”
“Good, then mic up.”
Charlotte helped me pass out the mics to everyone else, which included Zhen, Jasha, Kelly, and Gramps. Gramps was only here to talk to Jasha about his magic type but was waiting until the curse was dealt with first.
Jasha’s familiar hung out at his feet, her guard up against the sword. She really, really didn’t like it. Next to her lay Jun Hie, and I wasn’t entirely sure who he was guarding—Jasha or me. His foot touched mine, that’s how close he lay.
Speaking of… “Jasha, did you name her yet?”
“Oh, uh…” Jasha glanced down at his familiar before answering. “Mirage. I normally call her Mira. She blends right into backgrounds, I can’t find her if she wants to hide.”
“Mirage is an awesome name! Suitable for a huntress.”
Mirage lifted her head and purred at me, the sound almost like a purr and roar combined. Such a cool sound. She clearly liked her name.
Kelly leaned down to pet Mirage’s head, which led to an eruption of even more purrs.
“All right.” Jo Jo stepped more toward the center, lining up with the camera. “Let’s get this show started.”
I hit Record and stepped out of the way. “You’re live.”
Jo Jo gave a little wave of his fingers.
“Hi, everyone, Jo Jo Ramshaw. You’ve seen me in other videos, I’m sure, but let me introduce myself a little.
The Ramshaw family is from Florida, and we are known as ward specialists and curse breakers.
I do hunt down spookies with my buddies from time to time, but today we’re focusing on a curse. ”
Jo Jo held out a hand and Charlotte brought him gloves. He slid his hands right into them. “This is my lovely assistant, Charlotte.”
Charlotte waved to the camera before walking back out of view.
Zhen, wearing his own protective glove, carefully pulled the sword free of the warded bag it was in and handed it to Jo Jo, who just as carefully accepted it. I don’t think they were worried about the sharp edge so much as the curse itself.
“Now, this sword is mega cool. It’s a legit Viking sword that’s been passed down in the Skovgaard family.
Jasha called us in because the sword’s cursed.
Someone super petty didn’t like his family owning the weapon.
The curse is about twenty years old, so it’s not hard for me to break.
I’m going to step into the ward sigil on the floor, and when I do, you’ll be able to see the curse yourself. ”
Jo Jo rolled his eyes. “And look, I know between AI and rednecks, it’s hard to tell what’s real anymore, but I promise you there’s no CGI here. Just good old-fashioned curses and magic. You’ll see for yourself in three…” He took a step back. “Two…and one.”
The second he was fully inside the circle, it was like someone took blinders off.
I went from looking at a very old metal sword to something alive with different threads of colors.
There were some of silver, of blue, some of a very angry red, others that looked black? All tying up in knots around the hilt.
“The silver and blue threads, those are part of the sword.” Jo Jo traced one of them with a blunt fingertip.
“The making of the sword and the history of it, that’s all intertwined into the sword’s identity of self.
Very normal for any object that’s existed for more than, say, twenty years or so.
It’s actually a great sign I can see those so clearly.
When a curse becomes too advanced, it either tries to destroy those threads, or warps them.
Sometimes you have to destroy the object the curse is anchored to if it’s at that state.
Now, these red and black, those are the problem children. ”
Zhen, still on the side, drawled, “This is the part where you tell them not to try this at home. And remember, folks, don’t touch cursed items with your bare hands.”
“Now, this glove”—Jo Jo gestured to his right hand—“has a lot of protections sewn into it. Frankly, this glove means I get to keep my hand intact. When you’re unwinding a curse, it tends to get volatile, which is why I have certain precautions in place.
The sigil, for instance, is here to make sure there’s no power backlash.
I’m borrowing space from Zhen, and he’ll be very mad if I blow his workshop up. ”
Zhen snorted. “I’d be even more mad if you blow yourself up. I’m not explaining that to your family.”
Jo Jo blew him a kiss. “I knew you loved me.”
If these two would stop bantering, we might get this done before the evening was out. Maybe.
“Kris, could you zoom in on the hilt?”
“I can, yeah.” I picked up the stand and moved it a little closer, the easier way to zoom, in my opinion. I sat it down right on the edge of the sigil. “There good?”
“Perfection.” In an almost Mario-esque voice, Jo Jo went, “Here we go~”
He picked one of the red threads up and followed it, right to the hilt, then pinched it carefully between thumb and finger before giving it a hard tug. It pulled free easily, dissipating when he let go.
“Ah-ha! You can grab the wrong string and make that knot tighten. It’s a pain if you guess wrong, and sometimes it’s really an educated guess.
Main strings are typically long, and the one I pulled was shorter than the others.
It’s a telltale sign. All right, let’s see if we can get that short black one next. ”