Rowan sat on the sofa, shaking her head. “Thought-forms are notoriously difficult to get rid of, and there are a lot of them in the world. You should see what happens to writers who get so hooked into their characters—they’ll often have a whole troop of characters hanging out in their houses, and sometimes, they won’t even notice it. I think that, in Tarvish’s case, the dungeon master who created him is so proud of him and so into the game that they’re keeping the demon alive from a distance. In fact, if it was the witch playing the mage who created this creature, my guess is that she knows full well she’s brought the demon to life. And I think she intended to.”
“Budding chaos magician?” I asked.
“Maybe, but one of the things I’ve found is that young witches—especially ones who are gifted—tend to be arrogant and they bite off more than they should.” Rowan leaned forward. “I think she decided to see what she could manage and it got out of hand.”
“What do we do about it?” I asked.
“I’ll do some research and see what I can find. Meanwhile, don’t fret. I’ll take Tarvish home with me where I can keep an eye on him. Why don’t you go fetch him?” She stood up, brushing out her skirt. “Tad, get me the names—the real-life names—of the members of that D&D group. I intend to put in a call to them and find out who’s mentoring that witch. Whoever it is needs to know what a mess their acolyte has made.”
Relieved, I went into the kitchen. Tarvish looked up. “My grandmother would like you to stay with her. She has more room than I do. We’re trying to figure out how to send you back to your…friends—your dungeon party. I didn’t deliberately bring you here. It was a…” How was I going to explain this to a thought-form? “I was casting a spell and something went haywire.”
“I was wondering about that,” Tarvish said, standing up. “You don’t seem to have an orc problem here, and that’s mostly what I take care of.”
“Right,” I said. “No orcs. So follow me, please.” I led him back into the living room. “Tarvish, this is Rowan, my grandmother. She’ll take you home with her. Please be nice.”
He eyed her carefully. “You’re a powerful witch, aren’t you?”
She gave him a guarded nod. “Yes, why?”
“I can feel the energy rolling off of you.” He held up the crossword puzzle book. “May I take this?”
“Of course,” I said. “Keep it and the pen.”
As they headed for the door, he asked her, “Do you have any cats? I love cats.”
Rowan chuckled. “I might find a few for you.” She opened the door and stood back for him to leave first.
Tarvish moved toward the door, then stopped. He tried to exit again, but looked like he was running into a force field as he tried to push out the door. He turned around, sounding flustered. “I’m sorry, but I’m having a hard time. It feels like there’s an invisible wall across the door.”
I groaned. “Try the back door.”
We all headed to the kitchen again, where Tarvish tried to step out onto the porch, to no avail. It looked like Tarvish wasn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
“I’m terribly embarrassed,” he said. “I’m not faking it.”
“We know you’re not,” I said. I turned to Rowan. “So, what now, given he doesn’t seem to be headed anywhere?”
“I guess you have a house guest,” Rowan said. When I started to protest, she shrugged. “What do you want me to do? I can’t try to drag him out—he’d get hurt and that wouldn’t be good for any of us.” She gave me a meaningful look.
“Right,” I said, backing off. “Okay, Tarvish, for some reason, you seem to be stuck here. Let me show you to the guest room. Actually, give me a moment to spiffy it up for you.” I grabbed my grandmother’s elbow and dragged her toward the stairs. When we were out of earshot, near the bottom of the stairs, I said, “I can’t believe this. What am I going to tell Killian? Hell, what the hell am I going to do with him? Tarvish, that is.”
“You could tell him we’re a little like the Addams family and that Tarvish is a long-lost cousin,” Rowan said with a laugh. “Just tell him the truth.”
“The truth sounds absolutely insane. Oh by the way, dear, I downloaded a demon from the web yesterday. He likes kittens and puzzles and chasing orcs, and oh, by the way, he’s not real—he’s a thought-form come to life and he can’t leave my house.”
“Truth is often stranger than fiction. He may not like it, but Killian’s a smart man and he’ll understand what happened.” She paused, then added, “I’m happy you’ve found someone who’s a good person. I watched you with Ellison from a distance, and though I couldn’t talk to you back then, I dreaded what I foresaw coming. I could tell what kind of a man he was from the beginning.”
“I wish you had said something.”
“Ah, but you had no clue who I was. And you were young and in love. Would you have listened to me?” Rowan opened the guest room door and glanced at the beautiful comforter that I had spread over the bed. “Get a utilitarian blanket. Tarvish may not be a real demon, but my guess is he’s not the most graceful person on the planet and you don’t want him messing up your nice linens.”
I stopped at the linen closet in the hallway and pulled out a large, red knit blanket. “Good idea.” I also grabbed a set of old sheets out of the linen closet. As polite as Tarvish seemed, I wasn’t letting any Funtime demon sleep on the 500-count Egyptian cotton set currently on the bed. “I keep an old set for camping, or in case I want to lie on the ground outside.”
We stripped the bed and remade it, then folded up the clean linens and tucked them away. After we finished, I turned to my grandmother. “I hope you realize how happy I am that you’re in my life. I was taken by surprise at first, but…I’m glad you’re my grandmother. I feel like I still have family. I know, there’s Aunt Teran, but I never had any brothers or sisters, and with my parents gone and my cousins spread out, it feels like… Like I’m on my own, you know?”
She regarded me silently for a moment, then gave me an uncharacteristic squeeze. Rowan wasn’t very touchy-feely and she didn’t talk much about family matters. “You’re a good granddaughter. I wish I could have told your father I was his mother, but it was safer for him. There are still parts of my past that you know nothing about, and when—if it becomes necessary, I’ll tell you, but…for now, let it be.”
I wondered what she was hiding. But I knew Rowan enough to know that if she wanted to hide something, nothing in the world was going to pull it out of her. With that, we went back downstairs to lead Tarvish up to his room.
Chapter Eight
Once Tarvish was settled with his crossword puzzle book and a plateful of cookies, I returned downstairs. Rowan and Tad were in a debate about how thought-forms worked, and Caitlin was talking to Teran about differing methods of making pumpkin pie. I was about to break up the conversation when the doorbell rang.