31. Damian

Chapter thirty-one

Damian

" M olly, for real, call me back. Are you mad at me or something?" I hung up, frustrated. Molly would sometimes get pissed about something or another, but she never totally ghosted me. Of course, she'd been working hard, so I was probably just overthinking.

I was so exhausted with all the training I was doing. Elias might be on the other side of the veil, but that didn't mean the man wasn't working me to death. Of course, most of the time, my powers were intuitive, and that was helpful, but I still screwed things up, like I had with inviting Cary over and pissing off my ghostly companions.

We were practicing discernment, as Elias called it. "You need to be able to recognize the energy around you." I'd already visited a place known to be frequented by the dark, so I could feel what it was like to be around them.

Elias had also given me directions to a part of my neighborhood where a horrible murder had taken place, where the energy was still maleficent. He'd also sent me to find the light energies, places where I could recharge if I needed to.

"Not all entities of the dark or light know who they are. Like your Owen. He is a light energy, but he's only aware of that because you and his employers told him so."

That made sense. When I figured out how to discern energy, I began calling Molly, hoping to figure out what powers or energies were surrounding her. My memories told me she was neutral. Humans with no power, and most animals, tended to be. The exception being cats, of course, as you would expect, they were seldom neutral. Foxes were another animal that, according to Elias, tended to be either light or dark energies.

I didn't want to think Molly was behind the attack on Owen. Everything in me told me she hadn't been, at least not intentionally, but she'd been in the home several times now and had access to Owen's living space.

Although that wasn't technically true either, unless Owen had told her, she'd never been in his little hidey-hole behind the shelves in the library. Who had? No one, not even the group who'd come with Molly that first time for the seance had gone to the room behind the shelves. Yet someone had to have gotten in.

Elias had assured me he never allowed entities into his home. The ghosts were the only spiritual beings who'd ever come in. They were not friends of the dark, nor of any witches or power wielders, so that wasn't the problem. No, it'd only been since I'd been in the position of wizard that someone had breached the wards.

Elias had instructed me how to rebuild the wards, and mixed with my intuition, I knew nothing would be coming for Owen again. I wouldn't allow another entity into the home again until I understood who and what they were.

Those were the consequences of being new at something and not knowing what I was doing. Of course, Elias had repeatedly told me that when he'd started, he'd made many more mistakes, even with the wisdom of the scroll and his predecessor to help.

Apparently, the scroll was all the help he'd had. He'd had to live on the streets during America's Great Depression, barely scraping by. No money, no direction, no place to live. All while he fought the powers who wished to disrupt the balance between darkness and light.

"Of course, you should know that you will need allies in the darkness as well," Elias told me during one of our training sessions. "Don't become conceited enough to think that all dark wants to do is disrupt the balance of light and dark. Most wish to maintain what we have. It's only the rare few that would actively disrupt the flow."

Of course, that conversation had confused me. It's easy to think in absolutes, although intuitively, I knew what he was saying was true. Science had taught us all that darkness ruled the universe. It was only in small pockets where it didn't reign supreme. In the whole scheme of things, the sun, in all its glory, was also just temporary. Eventually, darkness would reclaim even this tiny speck of light.

I didn't know how black holes came into play, just that they did. The ultimate darkness was at the center of all things light. It didn't make sense that dark would care since, ultimately and quite naturally, it would always reclaim space.

I shook off my philosophical thoughts. Elias was no help with those questions and confirmed he'd had the same ones when he'd been alive.

With my instructions in hand, I walked around the city, identifying energies as I went. Most were benign. Some surprisingly bright, some definitely dark. Thanks to Elias's advice, I began to distinguish between those dark energies which were fine, such as a bar located just the other side of Pike's Place. I even went in, ordered a drink and sat there, assessing the atmosphere. Nothing was dangerous despite the very dark elements of the place.

I was just about to leave when a man caught my eye. We assessed each other briefly before he smiled and bowed his head toward me. My intuition indicated he was a changeling of some sort, not of this world, but not a danger either. My intuition also told me one day I might need to rely on this creature for help.

I found a similar place, a florist this time, with high light energy. I walked in and was immediately uncomfortable. Arrogance and superiority flowed around me. The proprietor, a man who appeared to be in his late sixties seemed to be pushing people away. I left without spending any money.

Okay, so I was beginning to get it. The dark wasn't always bad, and the light was certainly not always good. That probably went doubly true for the witches. I stepped inside Owen's place of business and was immediately accosted by the energies that flowed there.

Not all were light. "Witches are a diverse mix of the light and dark," Elias had instructed me when I'd asked whether Cary might be up to no good. "However, when they use dark energy, or dark magic as some call it, you can sense it immediately."

I lingered outside the door before going in. Although I knew the witches could detect my presence, I wanted to gather and discern the energy for myself. No one with the intuition I had would call the energy here benign. Neither the bar nor the florist was as intense as this was.

However, there were no indications that the powers that flowed here were any threat to me, Owen, or the balance I'd been entrusted to keep. I stepped into the office and was met by Cary, the two partners of the firm, and even an older female witch I hadn't met before.

"Mr. Richards, to what do we owe the honor?" Mr. Stages asked.

"I'm just getting to know my community, but thought I'd stop by to see if Owen would like to go with me to lunch. "

Owen came around the corner then, and after looking at his bosses and the others, he turned a concerned expression toward me.

"Oh, well, that makes sense. Owen, are you free for lunch?" the older partner asked.

Owen shrugged. "I… maybe?" he asked more than said.

I chuckled. "Everyone can stand down. I was just testing my abilities to discern energy. I'm sorry if I caused any upset."

All four witches scrutinized me, but it was Cary who shifted the tension. "As always, Damian, we are grateful for your patronage. Owen, why don't you go on and have lunch now? I'll take mine when you return."

Owen nodded, then rushed back to his office to get his jacket. I followed him outside and couldn't help but laugh once we were out of earshot, and I was pretty sure it was out of range for the witches to magically detect me.

"What was that about?" Owen asked.

"My homework from Elias seems to have caused a little upset with your employer."

Owen looked at me funny, then asked, "The discernment thing you mentioned?"

I nodded. "Yes, Elias said I need to discern the spirit. Not all dark is bad. Not all light is good. He put me on the path to figuring out which is which. I'm sure it was a bit of a setup, though. Luckily, the witches you work for are friendly. Otherwise, I think my snooping around would've been seen as a challenge. "

"So, Elias is setting you up?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah, I mean, learning not to piss off the magical beings around me is a big part of being a wizard. I don't think it's possible to avoid it entirely though. Sometimes, as a wizard, I think my job will be to challenge the different powers that be. My intuition tells me that as well."

Owen shook his head. "Where are we going?" he asked, and at first I didn't know what he meant. When I turned to him with a confused expression, he chuckled. "You said you'd come to meet me for lunch. Where are we going to have lunch?"

"Oh, yeah, um, I want to go check on Molly. Hopefully, she's at her favorite hang-out. It's on the other side of the neighborhood though. Do you think you have time to go all the way over there?"

Owen thought for a moment, then smiled. "Yeah, I have a potential client…Shadow. I think that's her name?" he asked, and I nodded.

"It's hard to forget Shadow, and trust me, I've known her a lot longer than you. Why?"

"She told me the day we met that she wanted to hire me, remember?"

I nodded. He'd told me that after we left the bar. She did well financially in her musical performances, and he'd do well to sign up as her attorney.

"Okay, well, let's go," I said, and Owen nodded, then took out his phone. I could tell he was texting Cary, telling him he'd be late getting back .

I doubted they'd mind unless something was going on at work I wasn't aware of. Which it could've been. Owen didn't discuss his work with me that much.

I hoped that changed soon though. I had tried hard not to leave Owen out of my experiences as a wizard, and I wanted to know about his life too. Yes, they were vastly different, but that didn't mean I wanted my world to overshadow his.

We walked hand in hand all the way across the neighborhood to the little bar Molly and her friends had adopted long before I started coming along. The place was small and tucked in the back corner of an alley behind one of the neighborhood commercial pockets the area was known for.

I'd never felt uncomfortable there before, never felt anything really, but the moment I saw the bar, chills rolled down my spine. I hadn't been there since the day I met Owen. That had been before I'd begun to hone my wizard powers.

I paused before going in. The atmosphere was anything but welcoming now that I felt it through my magic. I took a deep breath, knowing my friends were in there, and followed Owen through the front door.

Shadows played along the walls, and not all were there because of where the light cast them. There were also magical creatures lurking in the corners. I recognized some of them, but none had felt particularly dangerous before. Now, they eyed me warily as I walked toward where my friends and I always hung out .

Molly wasn't there. In fact, the only ones in our group that were there were two of the guys I'd dated in the past and a couple I didn't recognize. Luckily, none of them seemed to be dark, although as I stared at my exes, I realized I'd missed the glimpses of darkness that skirted around them. They were the opposite of Owen. They were like dark torches. "Have any of you seen Molly lately?" I asked.

They all shook their heads, and then Owen asked about Shadow, getting the same response.

"If you see Molly, please tell her I'm looking for her," I said, and the four of them nodded but didn't respond. Not that I expected them to. My exes might not totally hate me, but they weren't fond of me either.

"Don't you want to get a drink or something to eat?" Owen said as I began pulling him out the front door.

I shook my head. "No, not here," I said, not even trying to hide my thoughts or opinions. I might have just seen the place for what it was, but I couldn't help but guess the threatening characters that lined the walls certainly knew who and what I was—probably had for a while.

Once outside the bar, I took a deep cleansing breath and immediately recognized spells stuck to me and Owen. "Well, shit," I said as I let my intuition show me how to break them.

"What?" Owen asked.

"Nothing. Come on, I need to find spring water," I said, leading him away from the bar to an old artesian fountain a few blocks away. I'd known about the place for a while. It used to be used as a water fountain, but I doubted anyone wanted to use it for that these days. I stuck my hand under the water and then wiped up and down my entire body, then did the same with Owen.

He didn't say anything, even when I grabbed his crotch, hoping to lighten the mood. "What?" I asked when I finished removing all the negative spells that clung to us.

"What happened back there?" he asked.

"That's not a good place, but I didn't know that until now. We won't be going back in there anytime soon, because… Let's just say we aren't welcome."

"Me either?" he asked, and I nodded.

"Yeah, sorry, Owen, but you were with me, and the magical entities there would know we are together. You should avoid going in there. In fact, I'm going to discourage Molly from going too."

Owen chuckled. "I have a feeling you aren't going to have much luck telling your girlfriend what she can and can't do."

That caused me to laugh out loud. "Oh, well, yeah, you've got her number. Okay, I'll treat you to lunch at my next favorite hangout; then you should take a taxi back to work. Do you have the necklace Cary made you?" I asked, and Owen nodded, pulling it out so I could see.

"Good, keep that on. I definitely feel something is going on. I'm not sure what, but it seems to have its roots in the bar we just came from. I'm afraid I walked right into it. Literally. Again, my ignorance seems to have caused me to fuck up. Regardless, I'd rather you be safe than sorry."

"What are your plans? Are you worried about Molly?" Owen asked, and I nodded.

"Sort of, I mean, we've been coming to this bar for ages. I doubt they'll harm her, but I'll feel better when I check on her."

Owen leaned over and kissed me. "Go on, I'll get that taxi now. I can grab something close to the office, and you can relieve your mind about Molly."

I smiled. He was such a considerate guy. I kissed him and waited until his taxi showed, hanging out at the park where the fountain was. Once he was gone, I headed toward Molly's work. I'd start there, and if she wasn't at work, I'd walk over to her apartment, which wasn't far.

If something had happened, I'd know soon enough.