11. Damian

Chapter eleven

Damian

W hen we'd toured the home yesterday, there had been no liquor in the cabinets. Now, however, when Orville opened them, they were full. "Wow," Owen said. "We looked in there yesterday, didn't we?"

Orville smiled. "We weren't sure who you were yesterday, so we hid the contents of the house, just in case Mr. Ericson's solicitor would see fit to meddle."

Owen laughed. "I am officially one of Damian's solicitors, so you guessed correctly." He studied the contents of the cabinet and smiled. "I'll have a whiskey. To be honest, meeting ghosts seems to require the hard stuff."

"As you wish," Orville said formally, pouring Owen a drink. "You, sir?" he asked me, and I shrugged.

"I think the same is fine."

Orville poured my drink and replaced the bottle. "If you need me, sir, just call my name. I need to console Alice," he said, glancing at Owen as if he were frustrated that Owen's nose had been broken by the ghost woman slamming the door in his face.

It was all so strange. When Orville disappeared, I reached out and placed my hand over Owen's. "Are you okay?"

Owen shook his head while pursing his lips. "Oh no, not even remotely okay. I had my nose broken by a ghost. Then you healed my nose with some weird juju magic. Then another ghost served me some pretty amazing whiskey, a brand my uncle drinks, but only on special occasions. I know for a fact it costs a fortune. In fact, Damian, I recognize most of those bottles, and they all cost a fortune," he said, pointing toward the closed cabinet. "You have bougie ghosts serving bougie drinks in your bougie house. For real, do you think I'm going to be okay?"

I laughed. "Does it help that I'm just as weirded out as you? Apparently, I'm some storybook wizard thingy."

Owen turned his hand over and took mine. "Okay, so this is very strange. At least you now know who fixed the vase yesterday. How many more ghosts are here?"

I choked. "I don't think I want to know, but luckily, I won't have to do anything to keep the place up. They have gardeners, people who keep up with maintenance, um, dead people, but they all have jobs. It's weird."

"They don't scare you?" he asked.

I shrugged. "At first, yeah, but to be honest, I've met a lot of them today, and they don't seem scary. I can also tell when they're in the room, so, like now, it's just us. If I couldn't, I'd be more paranoid."

"Yeah, can you do your wizard thing so I can do that too?"

"Sure," I said without thinking and waved my hand. Owen's eyes glowed this time instead of mine. I don't think he noticed, and I honestly didn't mean to do it. It just came out. I knew how to, and without thinking, I did.

Just then, Alice came back into the room. I could tell she didn't mean to be seen, but both Owen and I turned toward her. "Oh, um, sorry, I…Orville said I should speak to Mr. Owen again. To ensure he is okay."

"I'm fine, Alice. I know it was an accident now, but thanks for checking."

The ghost's eyes grew large, but she bowed, quickly walking through the wall and disappearing.

"I don't think she knew you could see or hear her. Apparently, the whole waving my hand thing worked."

I heard my phone ring and pulled it out of my pocket. "Shit, that's Molly. They're headed over."

"Wow, have you warned your, um, ghost people? You don't want to have to fix more broken noses."

I quickly nodded at Owen. "True," I said. "Orville," I called out, and the ghost immediately appeared.

"I have friends coming over to see the house. Can you make sure no one else gets hurt?"

Orville nodded. "Shall I remove the personal items again, sir?" he asked, and I laughed .

"Oh, yeah, you should," I said and was glad of Orville's perceptive abilities. My…okay, they weren't really my friends. Molly's friends were borderline kleptomaniacs when it came to anything they perceived as otherworldly.

Orville bowed and disappeared, and I could hear things like the drinks in the cabinet being moved. I couldn't see them, which meant they operated behind the walls. I shivered slightly, wondering just how many spirits occupied the house. That was something I would want to figure out sooner rather than later.

I don't think I minded living with ghosts, but I wanted to know how many were there, and at some point, I wanted to meet them all. If they were going to be my roommates, I sure as hell wanted a handle on whether any of them were dangerous.