As soon as Joey called, “Mark!”, he darted once more into the kitchen. Behind him, he heard Caden’s footsteps running down the hall, and Indira and Frankie went thundering into the dining room. Once in the kitchen, Joey sent out holding lightning from his brush and grabbed hold of one of the ghosts. Though the ghost struggled and shrieked, the lasso held and Joey started walking backward through the kitchen door and down the hallway.
The other three ghosts in the kitchen noticed and flew at him, but keeping a tight hold of his brush, Joey ducked each one as they went past. Trusting the lightning would keep holding its captive, Joey turned and pelted down the hallway, noticing as he went that the three kitchen ghosts were zooming into the dining room after Caden. Caden must have found a way to lure them somehow.
Upon entering the living room Joey’s eyes were dazzled by the bright glow of too many ghosts gathered in one place. Caden stood at the center of the room, swirling his hands around a cloud of blue mist, and Indira and Frankie were slashing at several spirits in the dining room, shoving them slowly toward the front wall of the living room. Releasing his ghost, Joey shot out a line of lightning at one of the ones Indira was stabbing with her spikes. The line caught, and Joey flung the ghost towards the front wall, repeating the motion several more times with spirits that hovered before Frankie and Indira.
Glancing around the room, Joey saw that they’d got the bulk of the ghosts to the front of the house. He cried out, “Caden, now!” Instantly, Caden backed away from the ghosts a few steps and spread his hands out before him, then pushed them forward as if shoving against a wall. A translucent red shield went up in front of him, curving with his hands, and Caden stepped forward and pressed his hands closer together as if he were crushing something. The red shield shrank around the ghosts, all of them trapped inside of it.
Frankie was already acting, pulling out a Box and aiming it, so Joey and Indira hurried to follow suit. The house was filled with ghostly screaming as spirit after spirit disappeared into Boxes. The Boxes clanked to the floor once they’d done their job.
Finally the house went quiet as the last ghost disappeared into the Box Indira was holding, and Caden dropped the shield, looking totally drained. All of them jumped when there was a slam from the back of the house, and Mac ran into the room, bow at the ready. “We get ‘em?”
Frankie glanced around at each of them, then said, “I’ll check,” and stalked off to do a round of the house.
“So you got the one that stuck you in the closet?” asked Joey. Mac nodded.
Indira, sounding amused, said, “Mac, you got stuck in a closet?”
Mac grinned. “Ghosts are ruining my rep.”
“Clear!” announced Frankie as she re-entered the living room. Behind Joey there was a fwump sound, and when he turned he saw Caden had flopped down face-first onto Yolanda’s couch. “Pretty powerful Channeler we’ve got here,” Frankie remarked, and Caden held up a hand, mumbling something into the couch. “Never seen one who could handle that many ghosts before.”
“Well, we’re pretty lucky, I guess,” said Mac. “Nice job, everybody.” He stepped closer to Joey and clapped him on the back, saying a little lower, “Good work, kid.”
Taking a deep breath, Joey bit at his lower lip. He said, “I’m gonna go check the perimeter, in case we missed any,” and ducked out the front door before anyone could say anything.
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Outside the night was alive with the sound of insects, and the light from the windows, more natural now, lit up the brush in front of the house. The fall air cooled the sweat at the small of Joey’s back and on his face. For a moment he stood breathing deeply, calming down, then he began to trudge through the fallen leaves to the side of the house.
A flash of movement caught Joey’s eye, and a loud rustle behind a bush. Instinctively, Joey activated the hold on his brush and a line of lightning shot out and wrapped around—
A person. A person who, after a moment, Joey recognized. A person who wasn’t struggling against the lightning’s hold, so Joey tugged at the brush until the man had to stumble out into the light cast by the house.
Behind him, Joey heard the front door creak open and a couple of footsteps down the stairs, then Mac’s voice calling, “People!” There was a sudden rush of thumping down the short staircase and more rustling through the leaves as the rest of the crew approached.
“The silver fox,” said Indira, voice sounding awed.
Joey recognized the man he’d captured: he’d seen him once before, outside Mrs. Shins’ house. The man appeared middle-aged or older, with light brown skin and silvering hair. He wore all black. Joey swallowed against a suddenly dry throat and said, “You’ve been following us.”
The man smiled calmly, as if he were held in place by magical artifacts all the time—as if nothing were amiss. “You’ve been following me.” He spoke with a smooth British accent.
“Who are you?” said Mac, and Joey felt him step up to his shoulder.
“Hmm.” The man tilted his head, thinking. “You can call me Fabian.”
“That’s not your name,” said Joey.
“Well,” said Fabian, shrugging. “I killed a man called Fabian once. Might as well use that name as any.”
“What do you want?” demanded Mac. “Where did you come from?”
Fabian only answered the second question, saying, “Not from here.”
There was only the sound of the crickets for a moment, then Joey said, “You don’t really look like this, do you.”
Another cool smile from Fabian. “Good guess.”
Just then there was the sound of a car approaching, and Yolanda pulled into the driveway. All of them turned to watch her approach, then Joey felt a buzz from the hand holding his brush and when he looked back at Fabian, he was gone, the lightning having retreated into the brush. “What the hell,” breathed Joey, and behind him Mac cursed, presumably having noticed Fabian’s disappearance.
“Guys, you did it!” cried Yolanda, who of course didn’t know anything was wrong. “So relieved to get your text, Frankie, I’d gone to the bar and there was this gross guy hitting on me—you people okay?” she said, upon getting close enough to see their faces.
“We’re fine,” answered Frankie for all of them. “Caught eleven ghosts.”
“No kidding,” said Yolanda, looking taken aback. “All right, all of you come in, I have some restorative tea, it’s late and you look wiped. No, you’re drinking the tea,” she said, when Mac went to protest. “Don’t drive drowsy.”
“I like you,” said Indira, following Yolanda inside. The screen door clunked shut behind them.
“What the hell do you think that was?” Mac asked once they were alone outside.
Frankie shook her head. “No idea, boss. Channeler, you sense anything?”
All looked at Caden, who merely creased his brow. “No. I’m sorry. I’m spent for the day after doing the—” He gestured with his hands to indicate the shield spell.
Mac kicked at the leaves on the ground and stepped away, hands on his hips, looking off in the direction Fabian had disappeared. “Hell.”
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Once they’d all made it back inside, Indira was in the dining room pouring hot water out of an electric kettle over teabags in a variety of chipped mugs. Yolanda had disappeared somewhere into another room. Now she came back in carrying a plate of Oreos. “Sorry,” she said, putting down the plate. “They’re the only ones the ghosts didn’t get.”
For a long moment the team exhaustedly sipped tea and devoured Oreos. Then Indira spoke up. “So who the hell was that guy?”
“Guy? What guy?” asked Yolanda.
“Silver fox,” said Indira, explaining nothing. “Hey, he had a British accent—Caden, do you know him?”
Blinking, Caden said very dryly, “Do you think everyone from Britain know each other?”
Shrugging, Indira made an ‘I don’t know’ sound. “It’s a small island.”
“Okay, who was this British guy?” asked Yolanda. “And what was he doing at my house?”
The team all exchanged glances with one another, then Joey said slowly, “Have you had any magical artifacts go missing lately?”
“Yeah,” said Yolanda equally slowly, one eyebrow raised. “My grandmother’s locket. How did you know?”