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“Let’s take this one step at a time,” Simon cautioned. “First, we have to see if Gabriella and Donnelly think this is the whole enchilada. Then they have to work up the actual incantation and gather what they need to magically ward the chamber. Even in an emergency, that stuff still takes time.”

“Here’s hoping it doesn’t take too long. If the creature feels threatened, it’ll strike out again,” Vic warned. “That’s just basic animal survival; it doesn’t have to think like a human.”

“Don’t worry. I’m on it,” Simon promised.

“Not until you shower, change, and eat something,” Vic corrected. “I know how much something like this drains you. Don’t do the spirit’s dirty work for it by going in at less than your best.”

Simon pulled him in for a kiss, ignoring their morning breath. “Thank you for taking good care of me.”

“I want you around for a very long time. I’m planning on being old men in Miami popping Viagra,” Vic replied.

“Bingo and croquet optional, I hope,” Simon joked.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Vic set his empty cup on the counter and made a shooing motion to hurry Simon on his way. “Go. Get cleaned up so you can save the world.”

Simon made it through his routine as quickly as possible and came back with towel-dried but still damp hair. “Don’t worry, I used soap and antiperspirant.”

“Good thing. Don’t want the bad ghosts to smell you coming.” Vic put a fresh cup of coffee in front of Simon along with a plate of fried eggs, bacon, and toast.

“Thank you. You spoil me,” Simon told him.

Vic snorted. “I help keep you alive. Believe me, there’s self-interest involved there as well. Now, eat.”

Simon dug into his food while Vic finished his own breakfast and cleaned up. Between the food and the coffee, Simon was starting to feel alive.

Vic headed to work after making Simon promise to call before he made any moves against the entity and, in turn, promising to bring home their favorite sub sandwiches for dinner.

Simon fired up his computer and made a fresh pot of coffee, since he and Vic had already nearly emptied the first one.

He sent encrypted emails to Donnelly, Gabriella, and Cassidy to share the screenshots Sanderson had taken as well as background on the source of the information and some updates of his own. They confirmed receipt and promised to reply as soon as they had answers, but he wasn’t surprised that they didn’t give a specific time.

Spellcasting wasn’t one of Simon’s skills, so he turned to his own abilities as a psychic medium. Shades, shadow men, dark ghosts, and cemetery magic all involved communicating with spirits. While Simon’s abilities as a psychic didn’t match Donnelly’s as a necromancer, he hoped that he could hold off interference and attacks so the secret room could be sealed once more.

Shadow men were silhouettes without anything to cast them, and lore writers disagreed on whether they were supernatural or extraterrestrial. Shades were ghosts who had become malevolent and for whom nothing remained except hate and violence. While the paranormal community couldn’t agree on many aspects of their lore, there was agreement that both types of apparitions had the ability to cause harm. Simon found conflicting accounts of how to dispel them, but most credible sources agreed on sage smudging, salt lines, and verbal commands.

Dark ghosts were something different, manifesting as spirits without faces and lacking the individuality of regular ghosts, possibly not even formerly human souls. The best information claimed to have been leaked from a secret military occult research study. Since it was unofficial, it didn’t confirm being the same study as the one at Ocean Visions, but Simon figured that was likely. Regardless, he considered it to be a credible source. The effort had compiled helpful first-hand accounts as well as thoroughly documented alternate countermeasures for dealing with powerful and dangerous spirits. That could include ghosts, shades, and shadow men, and quite possibly, an angry landvaettir.

He saw references to necromancy and wondered whether that type of magic attracted the ancient entity on some level, and whether that had been part of the disgraced Vedmak’s sudden choice to flee to the other side of the world.

Simon didn’t know if Donnelly was already aware of the study, but just in case, he took plenty of notes. He hoped the advice was correct. It tracked with best practice for dealing with most unfriendly or dangerous supernatural presences, so Simon made a list of the items they’d need as well as banishment spells to hold them off.

The landvaettir wasn’t the remnant of a dead person, and the Ocean Visions Hotel wasn’t a graveyard, so many of the practices common to cemetery magic didn’t apply, at least not directly.

Still, Simon considered the possible benefit of having grave-blessed dirt on hand plus holy water, and possibly a small bribe gift to tempt the entity back into his prison.

He searched for anything he could find on fire salamanders, and the lore was surprisingly thin. Frost spells, drenching them in water, and separating them from their power source were mentioned, but with frustratingly few instructions.

It would be up to Gabriella and Donnelly to choose how to approach the binding, but Simon wanted to be as ready as possible for his part. Keeping busy also helped him still his nervousness about the coming confrontation. He was certain that anything he didn’t use this time would come in handy for a future ghostly encounter.

It’s asking a lot to expect Gabriella and Donnelly to bind the fire entity, deal with the salamander, and stop the dark ghosts. I’m going to have to find a way to ask for help.

His phone rang with an unfamiliar number. “Hello?”

“Is this Simon Kincaide, the psychic?” a man with a deep southern accent asked.

“Yes. Who’s calling?” Simon didn’t give out his personal number, but his ‘Spidey-sense’ told him this wasn’t a telemarketer.

“You could say that I’m an ‘associate’ of James Donaldson,” the stranger replied. “Part of an organization he dealt with frequently.”