Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
DANIEL
Gabe pats Connor on the back. “There, there,” he says, not sounding at all sympathetic. “We all hate you too.” He laughs when Con flips him the bird.
Josh takes pity and says, “The ghosts are trying to be helpful.”
I groan. That’s a recipe for disaster.
“Whatever you threatened Carter with didn’t work after he listened outside Gabe’s cottage and heard more of the details. He decided that, and these are his words, ‘the risk to the estate is of more importance than my own safety.’”
“That’s kind of sweet,” Skye says, trying not to laugh.
“Yeah, sweet,” Connor mutters.
“He reported back to the others, and they all listened to Gabe’s call to the Collective.
So they know pretty much everything we do.
They’re currently in the Garden Suite, keeping one eye on the gateway—‘just in case’—and planning out what they can do.
Norval’s been appointed task force leader, since he has the most experience with demons. ”
“Please,” I beg, “please, please tell me they actually used the phrase ‘task force leader.’” This probably isn’t the time for levity, but I feel like my grin might crack my face.
Josh nods. “Task Force: Ghost is operational and ready to offer support. They’re putting together a list of what they can do for us before they request a meeting.”
“Holy crap,” Gabe breathes, while Connor just buries his face in his hands.
“Is there any way they can actually help?” Ewan asks. “They’ve been moderately helpful in the past. And we’re going to need everyone we can get. It’s peak season, and if Skye has to go in search of a spirit, plus one of us with him, we’re going to be majorly shorthanded.”
“Plus Arissa just gave her two weeks’ notice,” Kieran says from the doorway. He looks tired, a crease between his brows. “She’d prefer not to work out all of it, so once she’s handed over to one of the more senior chefs—probably Jorge—we’ll pay her out the rest.”
“Does Jorge have the experience to handle the non-chef part of the role?” Josh asks. “I mean, I know he’s highly trained and that we were lucky to headhunt him, but he doesn’t have any management experience, does he?”
“No,” Kieran confirms, sagging into a chair. “I’ll do that part initially. If he’s interested in the management job, we’ll upskill him for it and then hire another line chef. If he’s not… I guess we’ll have to recruit at the management level.”
Yikes. None of that sounds ideal. Now doesn’t seem like a great time to bring on someone new.
And it’s not exactly easy to recruit for skilled jobs out here anyway—town isn’t a thriving metropolis.
Although the estate is an accredited five-star boutique hotel and our dining room has an excellent reputation, it’s only open to hotel guests, so getting experienced chefs with the required training and education is hard.
They’re usually willing to move out here for a year or two at the beginning of their career to build their résumé, but once they have experience, most prefer to be in a city.
Or at least at a full-service-style resort.
We go through big drama every time we need to hire a new chef, and I know Kieran bumped up the salary and benefits package for our current staff in an attempt to keep them all longer.
Skye sighs. “Seriously, did we piss off an ancient deity? Why’s it all gotta happen at once?”
Kieran shakes his head. “We’ll find a way to manage. Did I hear you say the ghosts want to help?”
“Yeah, but…” Josh spreads his hands, grimacing. “Their intentions are good. I can’t guarantee the delivery. You know sometimes their enthusiasm just causes more problems.”
“But they wear themselves out,” I point out, remembering Carter this morning. God, was it only this morning? It feels like forever ago. “They spend all their energy manifesting to cause whatever chaos, but then there’s blessed silence once they run out of power.”
“For you, maybe,” Josh gripes. Con and Gabe nod in grumpy unison.
“Dan’s right,” Skye says slowly, shocking the pants off me. Not that he and I don’t agree on things sometimes. Like when…
Hmm. I might need a second to think of something. Our friendship is mostly amicable sniping.
“Let’s put their enthusiasm to work. They can help man reception and deal with the day visitors. As long as one of us is on duty with them to supervise, they can work in shifts, manifesting for a few hours at a time each. And by the end of the day, they’ll be too tired to do anything else.”
Kieran looks doubtful, but he’s nodding.
I can imagine how his thoughts are going: the idea of giving the ghosts almost unfettered access to the guests is terrifying, but at the same time, this makes sense and would free up two people—Skye to search for spirits, and Kieran to take on half of Arissa’s job as well as his own.
From what the others tell me, he already spends more time at reception than he should.
“I kind of like it,” Josh says. “Part of me is horrified at the thought, but it’s not like they don’t already manifest and talk to guests anyway.
And if we emphasize how important this is and how much we need their help…
well, they’re all super possessive and proud of Mannix.
I don’t think they’d deliberately do anything to fuck things up. ”
“I’m in favor,” Connor announces, and Ewan coughs, choking on his coffee. “What?”
“You’re in favor of something?” I ask.
“Hey, I don’t disagree with everything. And this is a great way to keep the ghosts away from me.” He grimaces. “Except Uncle Norval. I don’t think he’ll agree to receptionist duties.”
“He can come with me while I’m searching for spirits,” Skye volunteers, surprising me again.
“He can? Why? You won’t be able to hear him away from the estate.”
Skye smiles. “Exactly. He gets to feel like he’s doing something, I won’t be bothered by him at all, and who knows? He might talk to another ghost somewhere along the way or notice some demon-y stuff that he can report back on. It’s an all-around win.”
“I really like that idea.” Gabe’s smiling. “He can also pop back and let us know immediately if you run into trouble, and keep us updated on your exact location as we come to you.”
There’s an awkward pause as we all try not to remember what Connor said earlier about it not mattering who’s there if a higher demon finds us.
“Okay,” Kieran says. “We’ll put the idea to the ghosts and see if they’re on board. Daniel, Ewan, could you each try to free up two mornings or afternoons a week?”
“Why don’t I do three and Ewan one?” I offer. “I can get some college kids to help with the general work as long as I handle the demos, but nobody else can use the forge.”
“Are you sure?” Ewan and Kieran ask in unison, and I laugh.
“Yeah. The kids I’ve already got working have asked for extra hours, so it’s no trouble. I just need the budget,” I tell Kieran, and he winces.
“Leave it with me.” He’s about to say more but is interrupted by a knock at the door. We all look and see Joe and Norval standing there.
“We’re requesting a meeting,” Joe declares in his usual blunt, get-off-my-lawn manner.
“Good,” Kieran says. “We were just about to ask you to join us. I assume you’re the elected delegates for the ghosts this evening?”
The best thing Kieran and Josh ever did was insist the ghosts could only have one representative at management meetings. It cuts down on so much chaos.
Joe nods. “I’m the elected representative, and Norval is here as my expert consultant.” He stumbles a little over the last words—Joe’s the least social of all our ghosts, and when he was alive, the expression “expert consultant” wasn’t exactly in wide use. If it was being used at all.
“Great. Please sit down. I understand you’re aware of all the details.” There’s a light note of censure in Kieran’s voice, and Joe bristles.
“If you’re not going to tell us things, we need to find them out somehow. This is our home, and we’ve looked after it a hell of a lot longer than you have.”
“And you!” Norval barks, pointing an accusing finger at Connor. “For shame, boy! Threatening poor Carter with crossing over. I raised you better than that. Back in my day, you’d be put in the stocks for something like that.”
Connor rolls his eyes. “You didn’t raise me better. You didn’t raise me at all.”
“And he wouldn’t have been put in the stocks,” Gabe adds. He’s a historian working on his doctorate in some weird niche demon-history crossover that I don’t fully understand, so he’d probably know.
Norval opens his mouth again—probably to yell—and Kieran holds up his hands.
“We’re getting off track. We understand and appreciate that you have a stake—a big one—here at Mannix Estate, and that you care about protecting the world from whatever might be coming.
Right now, we’re still trying to gather information so the Collective can determine what’s going on and act to prevent it.
” He sounds so calm and businesslike, as though he’s talking about a new program here at the estate instead of hunting down spirits and finding a gateway to the otherworld so we can prevent demons from trying to do whatever bad things they have planned.
Man, that’s a weird sentence.
“We’d really appreciate your assistance and support while we do this,” Kieran continues.
“As I’m sure you know, it requires a very specialist set of skills, so some of us”—he gestures around the table—“will be focused on keeping Mannix running and helping the others however we can. We’d love it if you could step in with this.
” He lays out the plan with more detail than we discussed, so I assume he’s making it up on the fly, talking about rotating schedules and how the ghosts can “leverage their unique knowledge and history.” I keep my eyes on Joe’s face, watching his expression sour more and more, until it looks like he’s trapped in a small space with a really gross smell.
The kind that gets into your clothes and skin and that you can actually taste.
“You want me to talk to the guests?” he asks, in a tone someone else might use to say “You want me to paint myself with my own feces and lie back while flies lay eggs on me and maggots spawn?”
“For the time being, it’s where we’ll need the most help,” Josh puts in, then glances at Kieran.
“Arissa has given her notice,” he adds. “We’re going to be very shorthanded dealing with the day visitors while Kieran tries to fill the gaps there and Skye searches for a spirit that can give us more information. I could really use the help.”
Joe doesn’t seem convinced, but he gives a begrudging nod. “I’ll talk to the others. I can’t promise to take a turn myself. Well… maybe if it’s urgent. What about the gateway? Is it secure? I don’t like this talk about opening it again.”
Gabe sighs. “Neither do I. I’m not sure how much Norval has told you, but if it comes to that, it will be because we’re in the worst possible situation. But I don’t want to borrow trouble. For now we do what we can and hope more information and a better plan are on the way.”
Norval narrows his eyes and strokes his bushy beard. I seriously envy that beard. I can grow a decent one, but not like that. “That’s why you want me with Skye, even though we won’t be able to communicate. You need a hunter to look for signs of a demon.”
“Yes,” Gabe says, and even Connor agrees.
“Skye also suggested you could touch base with any ghosts you might come across,” he adds.
“There might not be any recent demon activity, but they could tell you about past incidents that might be relevant. We don’t know how long this hidden gateway has been active, but we do know it’s definitely more than fifty years. ”
Norval looks Skye up and down. “You’re not as ditzy as you look.”
“Hey,” I start. “There’s no need for insults.”
Skye just smiles serenely and replies, “You of all people should know better than to judge intelligence based on looks.”
There’s a startled silence, and then Norval bursts out laughing and slaps his thigh. “Spending time with you is gonna be fun, boy. I’ve always liked the feisty ones.”
Suddenly, Skye looks like he’s regretting all his life choices.