Tad narrowed his eyes. “You mean that vampire came in here and…crap. I think we need to figure out a way to ward against vamps getting in the building without our permission.”
“That would probably be a good idea,” I said. “I’m not keen about him being here, either.” I paused, thinking. “I actually don’t know what wards off vampires. Whatever it is will have to be strong to ward off a vamp as old and as powerful as Val.”
“You’ll want a garlic charm, with liquid silver in it. Paint it around all the doors and windows, and then you need to cast a spell stating that vampires aren’t welcome through the doors. Vamps can cross any public threshold. If it’s a private house, they must be invited in, but a business? Even a home business? They can enter without an invitation. So once you set up your ghost-busting agency, you’ll need to do the same to your house and to Ari’s,” Hank said.
I hadn’t even thought about that. “I need to dig out my mother’s spell book. I’ve spent the past few weeks just getting acclimated to the town again. I guess it’s time to start immersing myself in practice again. I admit, I’ve kind of enjoyed having an extended vacation. Even though I’m working, the past month has felt like a time for me to decompress after life with Ellison—” My phone rang and I glanced at the caller ID. “Speak of the devil. What the hell does he want now?”
I answered the phone. “I thought I told you to stop calling me.”
“January, please, hear me out. I’m being sued by three businesses for negligence. My lawyer says it’s better if I settle with them because they’ll win if we go to court. If I do, that means I have to sell the house and I’ll end up with nothing left.” He paused, then said, “I know I fucked up but damn, this is hard. I just need a shoulder—”
“Ana has two of them. You chose her. Why are you bothering me?”
He paused. “You’ve become a hard woman.”
“You helped make me this way,” I said. Then, remembering my wish, I sighed. Maybe he did just want someone to talk to. “What are you looking for, Ellison? What do you want from me? And be straight about it or I guarantee the answer will be no.”
Another pause, and then he said, “I thought maybe…you have the money from the settlement. Maybe you could give me half the money for it? I’ll be ruined—my social standing will tank!”
“Stop right there,” I said, my sympathy coming to a screeching halt. “I didn’t burn down the building. I didn’t throw the cigar in the trash can. I didn’t cheat you out of the business. I think this is one you have to field on your own. And I’ve got news: your social standing was always built on quicksand. Good luck. For once in your life, accept responsibility for what you did.”
I punched the end-talk button and stared at my phone. Yes, I had made a wish, but it all came down to free will, and we all made choices every day, whether or not we were being influenced by media, news, or magic. In the end, unless we were really, truly, being held hostage, we chose our actions.
Looking up, I saw the Hank and Tad waiting.
Tad winced. “Ellison?”
I nodded. “Yeah, he wanted me to give him part of my divorce settlement. He doesn’t want to face the world poor. He knows the friendships he has built up through the years are dependent on his financial status.” I stared at my phone. Even though I did detect a little schadenfreude in my heart, mostly I was just tired of dealing with his drama.
“All right, back to the matter at hand. Can you cast a spell to keep Val Slater out of here?” Tad asked.
“Ari and I probably can. She can fill in the gaps where I might be lacking—” My phone rang again and I was about to bite Ellison’s head off until I saw the name on the screen. “It’s Rowan. She promised to get back to me about Clarence van Nostram.”
“January? I finally have some information for you,” she said. “I’m emailing it to you as well, but I wanted to talk to you about part of it. Have you done any real research into the Covenant of Chaos?”
“No, but I’m thinking I probably should.”
“They worship the Elder Gods—the old, nameless, formless gods who go back beyond time. Most of them are chaotic, and I’m not even sure you can call them actual gods. They’re entities from deep in the abyss where energy exists without form and without any sense of human consciousness. They’re agents of chaos, and they balance out the ordered entities we call gods who have form and structure.”
A chill ran down my spine. “I’m getting the distinct feeling these beings—entities—aren’t exactly safe.”
“No, nor are they helpful. They exist solely to rail against order. They’re not evil in the sense of being like…oh…a serial killer, but they are dangerous. And one of the most famous ones goes by the name of Kahrnea. The Covenant of Chaos is always seeking a way to worship him directly, but you can’t access these gods without creating a portal. And that’s what they were seeking to do in that room—create a portal that opened into the realm of chaos so they could access the energy.” Rowan shook her head. “And there’s the question—did they manage to do that? Did they actually open a vortex?”
“Let’s say for the sake of the argument that they did,” I said. “What might we expect to happen?”
“Energy beings would have access to this realm—shadow people, poltergeists, and all sorts of astral creatures that run toward the chaotic. In their search for a pipeline to the energy of that realm, they would have to open up a two-way door. There’s no way to access energy from there unless you give it the same freedom to reach you. Does that make sense? There are no one-way doors when you’re seeking to bring something through to our realm.”
I frowned, trying to envision it. “So, if they want to call on something there, the door has to swing both ways.”
“Right. Now, whether they managed to open the portal or not during the time Clarence owned the restaurant, I’m not certain. But from what you described, I’d say the most likely answer is yes.” Rowan sighed. “Before you ask, yes, it must be closed in order to stop the activity in the restaurant.”
“Will that prevent shadow people and their ilk from coming through to Moonshadow Bay?”
She laughed. “Oh, January, you really don’t think that’s the only portal in town? The chaos workers have been in this community since we first started up. There are most likely portals tucked away all over the place. Why do you think we get so much activity here? It’s not just because we have a large Otherkin population.”
“How do we close the door?” I asked.
Rowan laughed again. “If I knew that answer, I’d be running all over town hunting down portals. I think for that, you might need to talk to Clarence van Nostram.”
That had been on my mind, but so had my next question. “Why would he help me, though? He belongs to the Covenant and they wanted the portals open in the first place.”
“Well, for one thing, he’s the one who owned that building, so he’ll probably be the best option to help you close it. And for another…I found out that Clarence left the Covenant three years ago. He dropped out of sight and he’s keeping a low profile. I imagine they have a policy that you never really leave…not while you’re alive. I have to go. I’m expecting a client and I need to get my spell components together.” Before I could say good-bye, she signed off.