Chapter 23
We may have had too much fun at the Fairchilds’ house last night. We had to sneak up on it, after all, which required hiding the SUVs nearby and skulking around doing what Seiji told us to. It was massive fun. We were all snickering and shushing each other even as we did the job.
Seiji really knew what he was doing, too. We barely had it all set up when I saw it start working. Ghosts were twice as strong and present as before, so much so even the anchors could see the outlines of them.
Somehow, or so Brandon explained, seeing only the bodily outline of the ghosts made them spookier. They looked less human, more unreadable, and therefore more sinister.
This pleased me.
Look, I’m petty and I believe in revenge, don’t expect much from me, okay?
Gwyn oscillated between feeling petty and angry with her parents.
Which was entirely fair. I felt that way, and they weren’t even blood related to me.
I thought she was due for some revenge and told her so, which helped settle her some.
She’d yo-yoed back and forth until we all went to bed. Hopefully she’d slept.
It had taken me a second to settle enough to sleep. I felt a little foggy this morning because of it, like someone had stuffed my head with cotton instead of brains. I kind of fumbled through a shower and putting on real pants. Really, I didn’t feel awake until we were ready to go.
This morning, it was just me, Brandon, Gwyn, Beau, and Hannah.
I wasn’t sure how Beau and Hannah had decided they were part of this conversation with the grandparents, but I wasn’t arguing about having backup.
Seiji and Lachlan were headed back to the mines for more scouting, and the remaining four chose to clear out some other buildings and try to track down that damn mob leader.
We needed to deal with him before he went full demon.
I just didn’t need another headache of calling in a demonologist. This case had too many specialists already.
This wasn’t Pokémon, I didn’t need to collect them all.
We all loaded into the SUV, Brandon punching a restaurant into the GPS, and hang on…wasn’t that restaurant haunted as hell and next on our to-do list?
“Cher,” I complained.
“Sorry. There’s only so many places offering breakfast, and this was the only one with a menu you could eat off.”
“Fuck.” I hated food allergies. Hated them. Ugh, fine, I’d just poof out any ghost who tried to hassle us.
While we drove, Beau leaned between the front seats, putting his hand on my shoulder. “My boy, no offense, but let me reassure her grandparents. I want to tell them that if something happens with you and Brandon, I’ll take over training Gwyn.”
I turned to see his face better. He seemed perfectly sincere? “Would you really?”
“Of course. She’s a sweet kid, smart, easy to train. It’ll be a pleasure.”
Gwyn was in the third-row seat, but she piped up happily, “That would be awesome!”
“Beau knows more tricks than I do,” I said to her. “He was my master for a reason. I think you offer a great compromise, Beau. If you feel it will reassure them, go ahead.”
“I will, then.” He sat back, pleased.
Gwyn wasn’t done, though. “Mack, I know you and Brandon were talking about enrolling me into an online school, but we might be able to do sort of a homeschool situation? My grandparents are both retired teachers.”
“Are they really?” Now that got the cogs churning for sure.
“Yeah. Grandpa taught math and economics, Grandma taught history.”
Oh look, three of my worst subjects. “We’ll ask them. I think having consistent contact with you will also quell some fears.”
“Ooooh. Bet.”
I’d take any and all ideas.
The trip wasn’t long, so we pulled up to the restaurant in no time. We hadn’t beaten the grandparents there, which didn’t surprise me, and they were quick to hug Gwyn. She was happy to hug them now that the tense moment of last night was over.
“I didn’t even properly introduce myself last night,” the grandfather said to me. “I do apologize. I’m Joe, this is Edith.”
I shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Joe. I’m surprised your son isn’t here?”
A dark cloud passed over his face, leaving his mouth turned down.
He had Gwyn’s grey eyes, or perhaps I should say that the other way around, but his hair was so faded into greys and whites I had no idea if he’d had dark hair originally.
A clean-cut sort of man, probably a leftover from those teaching days.
“I saw what Gwyn meant about those ghosts hassling her all day and night. Neither of us got much sleep. First my son was wailing about how he was a good father and didn’t deserve any of this.
Then the ghosts started hassling him directly and now he’s huddled under a blanket, crying.
He expected sympathy from me until I pointed out Gwyn had dealt with this daily without crying.
” Joe shook his head, anger snapping like fire in his eyes.
“I didn’t realize I’d raised a pathetic man who can’t even take accountability for his choices. ”
Yup, I was going to like Joe.
Edith encouraged us toward a table, which we took. She’d fortunately asked for a larger table, so everyone had a seat.
I saw more than a few ghosts peek at us; one mean ghostie even started sauntering in my direction. Looked like one of the miners from his dress. I recognized him because I’d passed him on the street at least a few times. I just stood there, staring him straight in the eye.
“Sir, you hassle me during a meal, I’ll exorcise your soul into bits.”
He paused, reassessed me, then apparently realized I was perfectly sincere. He lifted his hands in a placating way before backing out and disappearing into a trail of light darting upstairs.
I was going to hate upstairs, wasn’t I?
Resigned, I sat and perused the menu. Oh, there were lots of fun options here, including a farmer’s skillet hash. Sold on hash.
The waitress swung by with her pad already in her hand. “Hi, what can I get ya?”
People rattled off orders, and I did mine as well, although I impressed on her that no trace of butter or cheese could touch my hash. She promised she’d pass my instructions along to the cooks and disappeared into the back again.
Hannah then took charge of the conversation. “Now, Edith, Joe, let me explain a few things. First, Beau and I were FBI for forty years, very retired right now, and we don’t normally do cases at all. This is an exception. Mack was Beau’s last apprentice.”
I saw the pieces snap into place for them as they got the relationships down.
I picked up the conversation from there. “Brandon is my anchor but also my fiancé.”
Neither batted an eye at having a same-sex couple in front of them, though Edith had her thinking face on, lips pursed a little bit.
“How long does training a Medium take?”
“Depends on the Medium,” Beau answered bluntly. “Now, Mack had figured out quite a bit before he came to me, so it didn’t take a year, even. Gwyn’s much younger, so she’ll train with Mack until she hits eighteen.”
“Training with the FBI doesn’t come with fees, per se, but you do have to work for them for five years before the contract ends.
Then, staying with them is up to you,” Hannah filled in.
“Doing all of this means we’ll, of course, be involved in finding Gwyn a good anchor.
This might take years, depending on how quickly she meets the right person. ”
I swore Joe was mentally taking notes over there. “I didn’t realize until last night a Medium would even need an anchor. Why is that?”
Brandon took over, with Hannah’s help, explaining the many, many pitfalls a Medium faced. How anchoring helped stabilize our Sight. How much support we needed in the field to work the case.
“What about the psychic energy reading you mentioned last night?” Edith pushed.
“Truthfully, I know next to nothing about that talent.” I shrugged because I really didn’t have much I could say. “It’s why I’m delighted Seiji has started teaching her things. We’ll need to lock down a master who can teach her, as it’s not something I can do.”
“It’ll make her incredibly badass,” Beau tacked on with a wink at Gwyn, getting a gamine grin in return. “She’ll be unstoppable in the field. Not many cases will give her pause once she’s fully trained.”
“That said, we could use some help educating her.” I felt this was a good segue. “By necessity, we’ll need to do some kind of online school or homeschooling, as we’ll be bounced around the country with little warning.”
“Let us handle that,” Edith volunteered immediately. “Gwyn, did you mention we’re retired teachers?”
“I did, actually. Can you be my teachers?”
“Of course, honey, we’ll happily do that.” Edith smiled, pleased to be asked. “We’ll need to figure out how to handle it.”
I could tell we were striking a good balance here. The grandparents were happy and relieved to be actively part of her life, no doubt keeping closer tabs on her going forward. I was fine with that. A child couldn’t have too many protectors.
The food was excellent, and between answering questions, I even got to eat it. Not a single ghost got near us, although I spotted a few trying for it. I just glared them down. They got the message.
Joe picked up the check, which was nice of him. As we exited the restaurant, I found myself asking a question of my own.
“Joe, you and your wife clearly believe ghosts are a thing and are open to psychics in general, so why is your son playing ostrich so hard?”
The poor man looked abruptly twenty years older, like just the thought of his son depressed him.
“My daughter-in-law is from a very conservative, religious family. My son joined her religion when they got married, mostly to keep the peace, I think. But he’s onboarded more of their beliefs than I realized.
They strictly do not believe in ghosts because, in their religion, all souls either go directly to heaven or hell. ”