Chapter 39 #2
Noble had known that it was through the hands, but he hadn’t realized it was specifically the palms one should avoid.
Or that them gaining a corporeal form meant you could actually hurt them.
But then, it wasn’t as if Noble had dealt with cluster ghosts often, or really at all, when he’d been active as a hunter, even though he had been required to report it if he ever ran across one.
The order was always to report and not engage.
Noble, however, wasn’t surprised that it was best practice, even for witches, to get rid of them as soon as possible.
As far as he knew, while normal hunters didn’t deal directly with cluster ghosts, upper management would send a special team to get rid of them, due to the danger they posed towards humans.
Ollie frowned slightly as he turned the page, taking his time to scan over the words.
“Looks like we have a spell, and a potion we need to make to get rid of it. One of the ingredients doesn’t sound real, while the others may be hard to find.
Though, I likely can order most of it online, and possibly find some of it at a specialty herb store, but one ingredient I’m not exactly sure—”
Noble cut him off. “You do not want to get what you need online or from some random grocery store.”
Red let out a clearly put-out sigh before almost begrudgingly admitting, “He is right, and we won’t have anything here that wouldn’t be too old to use, even if you had access to it.”
Ollie huffed. “Let me guess, another hidden room?”
Red shrugged. “Regardless, freshness when it comes to potions is important. And as it is a cluster ghost of undetermined strength that you’ll be dealing with, this caution is even more important.
That being said…I’ll have to get back to you on where you can go.
As I’m not entirely certain which witch-owned underground apothecaries are still open in the area, or if the ones I’m thinking of just moved. ”
Yeah, he had to say, when apothecaries became less of the norm, for a while there it made finding witches really fucking easy.
.. The aftermath of it was that it sent them underground and increased the frequency of them moving.
Noble may have had a slight urge to apologize for being part of that.
If only for the fact that it would now make things harder for Ollie.
His conscience may have risen from the dead, but it didn’t necessarily mean it was that great of one.
Ollie hummed. “Okay…there is one other thing that may be a problem. With the spell, it appears we need the name of the person who currently is the face of the cluster ghost.”
“That I can’t help you with,” Red said with a chuckle.
“However, with their removal being considered high priority by most witches, with even witch hunters going after them whenever they come across them, and the fact that it’s harder for cluster ghost to consume older ghosts, it shouldn’t be that hard to identify the person, as they likely haven’t been dead that long. ”
“Even witch hunters? Does that mean there is a way to get rid of it that doesn’t involve magic?” Ollie asked.
There was, but… “There is a way, but from what I know, you need a lot of people involved, and it’s a hell of a lot more dangerous, with a higher risk of death.”
The witch grimaced. “Right, I’ll definitely be sticking to the method that involves a spell. I guess, Red, you can figure out where to buy this stuff, while I try…to sketch the man from memory.”
Red grunted, “If there wasn’t a risk involved, I’d suggest going back to refresh your mind about what he looked like, but as there is, and as we don’t know exactly how powerful this thing is, it’s best that you don’t go near it until you are ready to get rid of it.”
Ollie sighed. “It’s a good thing I have a great memory. What about the risk of it moving before we are ready?”
Noble clucked his tongue. “It’s a risk we are just going to have to take.
It will only show itself when it wants to, and based on how that alleyway is set up, if I’m remembering correctly, there isn’t really a way for us to monitor it without being noticed.
If it does move, we can worry about tracking it down then. ”
“I guess we really should have gotten rid of it first… Sorry.” The witch let out a little distressed groan and slumped over the table, pushing the book out of the way as he buried his face into his arms.
He ran a hand over the top of Ollie’s head, his red curls pulled into a messy bun like always. “Ollie, you didn’t know.”
“That excuse can only last so long,” the man murmured without lifting his head.
“Well, you have fun being dramatic. I’m going to try to contact some people,” Red said unhelpfully.
The witch’s head popped up with an obviously offended gasp. “I am not being dramatic!”
Noble glared after the familiar as he hopped off the table and left the room.
Looking back to Ollie, he tensed on finding the man’s eyes narrowed on him. “I’m not, right?!”
“You—” He laughed hesitantly. “—can sometimes be a little dramatic.” As the witch’s gaze narrowed further, he rushed to add, “But you aren’t being dramatic right now.”
“Right!? I am situationally and appropriately dramatic when I need to be. And that is fine.”
Noble gave the man a peck on the forehead. “You are, and it is, Baby.”
He chuckled fondly as the witch beamed at him—ah, so cute.
Ollie stared at the sketch on his desk after lightening a line around the man’s lip.
Staring at the almost piercing, dark, sunken eyes, the sharp, shallow angles of his face, the thick brow, the disheveled long hair, he felt a flicker of recognition, as if seeing someone after a long time, yet he was sure he didn’t know them…
“I don’t know why, but I feel like I’ve seen his face recently. ”
Noble, who was sitting on the couch in his office reading the newspaper, looked at it, his brow raised. “Why not try to think about where you’ve been recently? Maybe it will jog your memory as to where you’ve seen him?”
Where he’d been… Well, that would narrow it down as he hadn’t exactly been to too many places. The diner was obviously one, as was Old Bits and Bobs, Noble’s house, an office supply store, and the grocery store. Then there was that random location in the woods… Not to mention the police—AH!
“I know! I know where I’ve seen his face!
A photo on the wall at the police station.
It’s funny because when I saw it, I thought the man’s face looked familiar, but couldn’t place it.
But then that makes sense, as I had only seen him once in that alleyway, and he had looked a lot less put together. ”
Noble smirk. “Him being a deceased police officer is going to make finding his name a hell of a lot easier.”
“I’d say! And with his death likely having been violent and possibly occurring while on duty, it will make it even easier. Though, I suppose I may be assuming that last bit,” Ollie said with a giggle as he pulled his laptop over and opened it.
After quickly logging in and opening a browser, he typed ‘Westerly Heights police deaths on duty’ into the search bar and hit search. Ollie scrolled through, scanning the headlines and photos. He found what he was looking for only halfway down the page, and clicked the link.
“Found him! Undercover officer, Jack Hayes, died eight years ago while on duty during a drug-related shootout.”
Huh, he hadn’t realized they had that big of a drug problem in the area…
“Good job, Baby,” Noble said sweetly.
“Thank you! Now we just need to wait for Red to give us a place where we can actually buy the things we need to make the potion.”
Hopefully, that wouldn’t take long, he thought, as he quickly jotted down the man’s name in a notepad.
And while he waited, he could…do some work-related research on how to make a gem glow scientifically.
Research that was completely unrelated to his boyfriend possibly being his enemy—yep, unrelated…