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“Could you show us, please?” Sanderson asked.
“It’s right next door.” Reggie led them to the recently opened second room. “It didn’t appear to be involved in the fire. Been a lot of strange stories about this hotel over the years. Maybe the ones about witches and kinky people in masks were right.” Reggie didn’t ask, but Simon could tell the man was subtly fishing for details.
This room had even more sigils and arcane symbols than the first one, but Simon noticed an important difference. In the first room, the symbols were intended to keep something contained inside. In the second room, the symbols were meant for protection and to restrict an outside evil.
One is a prison, and the other is for the jailers, Simon thought.
To his credit, Sanderson treated the implied question like a joke. “It’s a very old hotel. Who knows what people got up to back in the day?”
If Reggie had hoped to get a scoop on it being a secret sex dungeon, a Mob bolt hole, or the headquarters of a clandestine group like the Illuminati, he was going to be disappointed. Probably just plain old witches trying to keep tabs on a fire ghost with a bad temper, but we’ll have to do some digging to figure out why it got walled up, Simon thought.
Parasite ghosts might not be common, but as Simon sorted through the vibes from the burned basement, it made him more sure that both the dark spirits and the fire salamander were secondary, although dangerous manifestations.
Sanderson looked to Simon for direction, and Simon nodded to let him know he had gotten what he needed. “We don’t want to take you away from your duties,” Sanderson told Reggie. “I think we’ve seen enough. Thank you for your time.”
“Glad to help,” Reggie replied as he led them toward the surface and into the daylight. “I just hate to see any harm come to these grand old queens of the boardwalk. They’re something special.”
They shook hands at the street, and Reggie offered to guide them to other areas if they needed another visit. Simon waited until Reggie went back to work before he turned to Sanderson.
“Was it what you expected?” Simon asked.
Sanderson shrugged. “Wasn’t sure what to expect. The ‘ghost’ room was very plain, like a cell. I don’t know what to make of the other room, and I’m not sure why they were both covered up. How about you?”
“I’m still processing what I sensed, but coming here helped,” Simon told him. “I got a better read on the ghost.” He didn’t mention his suspicions about the dark spirits or the fire salamander, for now.
He thought for a moment. “My guess is that they covered over the fire ghost’s prison to keep it from being disturbed. I have some theories about the other room, but I want to run it past some people more familiar with the craft and binding rituals. And I have no guesses on the room that’s still blocked.”
“I guess those didn’t work the way the original witches expected,” Sanderson replied. Simon gave him credit for being tolerant of a situation that was far beyond his normal experience. “I just want to get the hotel back open and keep the ghost away for a long time.”
“That’s certainly my goal as well,” Simon assured him. “Thank you for meeting me on such short notice.” He promised to keep Sanderson updated on any breakthroughs and drove back to the shop with his thoughts spinning.
It was still early in the day, so Simon called Gabriella. “Are you up for a quick road trip?”
She laughed, a deep, rich chuckle. “Let me guess, the Ocean Visions Hotel?”
“Got it on the first try.” Simon told her about the visit with Sanderson and what they had found.
“I don’t think I can get us onsite again today, but I wondered if just driving past might be enough for you to do an initial read,” Simon suggested.
“Let’s try it and see,” Gabriella agreed. “I’ll meet you at your shop.”
Simon took a break to clear his mind and restocked some merchandise in the back room. Not long after, he heard the bell on the shop door chime and looked up to see Gabriella Hernandez bustle into the store. Gabriella owned Botanica Hernandez, a shop that sold candles, plants, and herbal products for root work and meditation. Although Gabriella was a powerful bruja, Simon always thought she looked more like a successful middle-aged real estate agent.
“Thank you for meeting with me,” he told her. “And Vic says ‘hello.’”
She gave him a motherly once-over and shook her head, tut-tutting. “Simon Kincaide. You’re not eating or sleeping enough, and you know that leaves cracks where bad stuff can get to you.”
Pete grinned and gave a silent fist pump in agreement. “He doesn’t listen when I tell him that.”
“You can’t turn him into a squirrel.” Gabriella broke into a mischievous grin. “Neither can I, but it’s the thought that counts.”
“As I mentioned on the phone, I’d like us to go over to the Ocean Visions Hotel and see what kind of vibes you pick up,” Simon told her. “I’m especially interested in how you might perceive things I didn’t when I took a look by myself.”
Gabriella gave him a shrewd look. “I got the feeling when I read about that fire that there was more to it. That hotel has a long history of causing supernatural problems. I know some of its history. There’s been rumors about a fire spirit for a long while, but since it went quiet so long ago, I guess the magical community decided to let sleeping ghosts lie. I couldn’t help hoping maybe this time it would burn itself clean.”
Gabriella’s comment validated Simon’s suspicions about the nature of the entity at the hotel. He had read about such things in the lore but had never expected to encounter one.
“Ever heard of a fire salamander?” he asked.
