Emilia laughs at this. “Well, at the time I was a very shady lady.”
“But you aren’t anymore?”
Lifting her head to meet my eyes, she whispers, “No, not anymore.”
Why don’t I believe her when she says this? I think on it for a while, not noticing the lack of conversation until Emilia begins talking again. “So, this is your house that you live in with Ira. Tell me, are you two involved?”
I cough. “No. Ira’s my friend. Well, he was sort of my temporary pet until he changed back into a man. The house belongs to my other, uh, friend, Finn. He’s a slayer with the DOH.”
“You live here with two men?”
“Yep. Oh and Gabriel too. He’s a dhamphir.”
“Three men?” her voice rises a note. Even though her assumptions are wrong, I’m surprised she’s acting so shocked given all her years of adulterous promiscuity.
I laugh. “Despite what you’re thinking, it’s not like that. We all live together because the times are unpredictable and it’s safer this way.”
“I have to admit, in all my years I don’t think I’ve ever come across such an arrangement. A shapeshifter, a slayer, a dhamphir and a witch all living under one roof. The times, as you say, really are unpredictable.”
“It does sound sort of like the beginning to a crap joke when I think about it.”
At this, Rita comes back into the room, carrying a stack of dusty hardback books. As we set to work looking through them, Emilia instructs us on which chapters to consult, as though she knows these books from cover to cover. When I ask her about it she says that all members of the magical families are schooled in witchcraft from a very young age. She grew up learning all of these texts by heart.
After a few hours of reading through spells and scribbling down notes, we finally settle on a spell intended to protect a person from being found by malevolent creatures. The malevolent creatures bit basically refers to anyone who means to do the person harm, supernatural or otherwise.
For the spell we need a clear, empty space. Rita and Emilia begin moving the furniture out into the garden. I’m surprised when Emilia offers to help, since she doesn’t exactly look like an elbow grease sort of dame. However, she doesn’t go about moving the furniture in the “human” way. Instead she uses magic. If you didn’t know what was going on, you’d think we had a poltergeist. One that wanted to rearrange Finn’s kitchen in a very mannerly fashion.
“That is cool as shit,” Rita exclaims, watching as Emilia lifts a chair with nothing but a wave of her hand. Emilia shows Rita how to do it and then the both of them are at it. Deciding I’m only getting in the way, I step out into the hallway to call Finn.
“Hey,” he answers, sounding breathless.
“Um, hi. Did I get you at a bad time?”
“Nah, we just finished up with a hunt. I think I might have broken a record with all the chaos killing I did today.”
“Well, you’re nothing if not thorough,” I joke.
“Oh, you haven’t seen the half of how thorough I can be,” he adds huskily.
I try to think of a good comeback, but none spring to mind. Instead, I swiftly change the subject. “Rita, Emilia and I have figured out the spell. Is there any way you can let Pamphrock know? We’re setting it up now, so I kind of need him to bring Rebecca over as soon as possible. Oh, and I need Emilia and Rita with me to do this, so you’ll have to okay that with Pamphrock. I know he’s a little touchy about people knowing about Rebecca.”
“You told Emilia?!” he lets out a low curse.
“Calm down, I haven’t told her who Rebecca is. Not yet, anyway. But once Pamphrock arrives it’s going to be pretty obvious.”
Finn sighs. “Okay, I’ll take care of it. How has Emilia been? Any weirdness?”
“Too much weirdness, but not the kind you’re thinking of. We had a little heart to heart and she told me that her husband Filipp wasn’t actually my mother’s father. Get this, it was a sorcerer she had an affair with!” I exclaim in hushed tones.
“Jesus. It wasn’t Theodore, was it? Because if it was, for a fella with a face on him like a Rottweiler chewing on a bee he got some decent amount of action in his day.”
I laugh. “A Rottweiler chewing on a bee?”
Finn chuckles. “Irish joke, never mind.”
“Uh okay. And no it wasn’t actually Theodore. That’s the conclusion Rita and I initially jumped to. But apparently it was some guy called Roman.”
“Never heard of him,” says Finn.