“More than a few, less than a lot,” I reply after a moment's thought.
“How do you accidentally lick things that you shouldn’t?” Ransom asks, his eyebrows drawn down in confusion as he tries to work it out.
I shrug, “It happens.”
“Clearly,” Doc replies. “But I think it only ‘just happens’ to you.”
I open my mouth to retort when Van interrupts us.
“Guys!” He exclaims, and we all turn to look at him questioningly, “We got way off track. Maybe we should go and see if Ethel can explain what the fuck just happened?”
“Oh yeah,” I say, resting Betty on my shoulder. “Good shout. I was just about to suggest that.”
He smirks, “Sure you were, Nene.”
“Rude,” I retort, as we all turn around and head toward House.
“Wait,” Ransom says suddenly.
I turn back around to find him staring out at the darkness that surrounds us, “Are you okay?”
He nods, “Yeah, I want to put some wards up though. I think I can feel some, but they’re different from anything that I have come across, and I would rather put up a set of my own. Especially since the place just got attacked, and with Casimir after us, I don’t want to take any risks.”
“That’s a good idea, actually. We can ask House and Ethel about the wards that feel odd to you,” Van agrees. He adds, “After we’ve asked all the other questions that we now want to ask them.
“Let’s do this then,” Coen says with a smile. “I’m assuming that we’re all putting our magic into the wards.”
“That’s probably the only way to make sure that they are as strong as we need them to be,” Ransom nods in agreement.
“Is there any way for us to stop the ghosts from getting in?” Doc asks. “Is that something that you usually build into the wards?”
Ransom shakes his head, “It's not, and I now realize that’s a massive oversight on my part.”
“It’s not your fault, man. I mean, up until recently, we weren’t even aware that ghosts were something that we needed to guard against,” Raiden says with a frown. “The dead should stay in the Spirit Realm.”
I want to point out that technically, I’m dead, or at least I have been dead a lot. So his statement isn’t strictly true, but the guys don’t know how many times I’ve died, and I’m not entirely sure that conversation needs to be brought up now. It’s a really long one. It’s also not that pleasant for me to talk about, for obvious reasons, so rather selfishly, I don’t want to bring it up until I have to.
Wow, there was some serious rambling in that sentence. I think if the guys could have heard me, then they wouldn’t have understood a word I was fucking saying anyway.
I am aware that the conversation needs to be had at some point. That’s a given. I just don’t think that it needs to be had right this moment.
“If you can add protections against ghosts to the wards, then I would perhaps add some caveats,” I suggest thoughtfully.
His eyes light with interest, “Such as?”
“Well, for one, this property is really old. There could be ghosts on these grounds or even in the house. Hell, House, and Ethel could be classed as ghosts, so I think that you should make it so that all those who call this place home, and mean no harm, can stay. We don’t want to eject someone from their home,” I start to explain.
Chapter Two
Neith
The guys stare at me with surprised expressions for a moment.
“It hadn’t even occurred to me that was possible,” River mutters.
I nod, “Another thing would be not to limit it to ghosts. I’m willing to bet that there are a few other things that could be classed as undead that we don’t want in here. I don’t want to take any risks, so just add to the wards a layer guarding against anything that should be in the Spirit Realm? Again, with the same caveat so that nothing that calls this place home gets ejected.”
I call this place home, and I’m not sure if I’m classed as something undead. It would be a shock for everyone if Ransom did the ward and I got ejected from the grounds.
