O’Toole House Chapter 23
Nick Bana had postponed the meeting, to Gabriella’s utter disbelief. He had apparently said something about a work conflict, as though he wasn’t in danger of having his immortal soul claimed by a demon in just a few days. This conversation had happened first thing in the morning, so Gabriella had thankfully missed the explosion when Bradley received that call, but he was still furious when she arrived at work.
“Amelia and I are both trying to talk to James about Ohio,” she said once he’d finally run out of steam and gone to brew yet another pot of coffee.
She leaned against the kitchen doorframe as Bradley worked. “Yeah?” he said, searching through the cabinet for a fresh bag of coffee grounds.
“I know he can make his own decisions,” she said. “But this is a bad one and he’s going to regret it.”
“No shit.”
She resisted the urge to tell him to shut the fuck up, only because she was still relieved by her breakthrough with James. Now if she could just get James to listen to her, maybe she could help.
Things calmed down from there, leaving them with a boring day of paperwork and case follow-ups. Graham spent most of it out in the field with Bradley on comms, while Gabriella set up research for the next four cases. Alone for most of her work, she had to resist the urge to text James and argue her case. Ohio was fine. Ohio was a lovely place and she’d be happy to visit Auntie Dana and Uncle Jim out there someday. But James didn’t belong there, he belonged here with them.
That evening, Gabriella wasn’t sure what kind of magic Graham had worked before he left for the day, but Bradley agreed to stay back on comms instead of going to the Bana house with her. While that was good, it meant that she had to go to the house and check all the readings with Saskia. And it was excruciating, even if Saskia didn’t realize it.
It wasn’t that Saskia was bad at the work. No, even back when they’d been investigating Gabriella’s mother’s house, Saskia had been good at the actual job. Even if she was timid and cowed by Patrick, she’d known what she was doing. Since then – and Gabriella imagined since becoming captain – Saskia had come into her own. She was fantastic in the field, including knowing when to lead and when to drop back and listen to Gabriella because Gabriella knew the case better.
Gabriella could see the appeal of Saskia, even if it went completely against what Elliot had both said and not said about why they didn’t work out. Sure, the schedule thing worked nicely if they saw each other every single day. And yeah, her team probably didn’t hate him considering they were his team too. But Gabriella had been in danger? Saskia was in charge of handling the danger. Why was that not a turnoff for him when it had been with Gabriella?
Or maybe he just didn’t know what the hell he wanted. He’d apparently only been trying to get over Saskia, so it didn’t matter anyway. Plus, Saskia was beautiful, something Gabriella had never thought about before now. She had delicate features and that haircut that made her look like a Disney fairy. Even if she was taller than Gabriella, she still made Gabriella feel like she was lumbering her way through the Bana house as they worked.
But it was only an hour, so she managed to get through it. Even if she’d still rather be cleaning Fang’s litter box, which she’d noticed before she left headquarters and had been repeatedly reminding herself to do at some point. This wasn’t torture, it was just her job. She and Saskia went through the Bana house to check the readings and do a quick run-through in the cellar. And for someone who had heard a demon down there over comms last time, Saskia was admittedly fearless as they moved through the moldy, crumbling cellar.
They checked the O’Toole House, then did a run through the mall parking lot for the start of a case Graham would be taking over tomorrow. Saskia left afterward, leaving Gabriella and Bradley alone at headquarters for a few minutes before he left too and Gabriella took the overnight solo.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” she asked as he was packing his bag.
“I assume you’re going to anyway.”
“Um, so Elliot mentioned something about the rules about dating here. Like, the fact that Saskia is a captain is what’s keeping them apart.”
“Yeah?”
“I know there’s no problem with Riley and Amelia dating even though Amelia is technically captain, so what are the rules? Like, what do we have to worry about? I realized I have no idea.”
Bradley shrugged. “Just common sense. Captains don’t date people on their team. So nobody thinks that you’re getting special favors because you’re with the captain. Or there’s the risk that you break up and your whole team falls apart. Other places have those rules too, it isn’t just fighting monsters.”
“That makes sense,” Gabriella said. “My shift leader started dating the assistant manager at the Domino’s I worked at in college. When they broke up they’d just fight the entire shift. It was so awkward.”
“Yeah, sure,” Bradley said through a yawn.
“So if, say, Saskia left the captaincy, they’d be able to date?”
Bradley raised an eyebrow. “You’re wasting brain space worrying about the Ghost King’s dating life?”
“He’s my ex and I’m really tired.”
“Sure, then. Yeah, they could. Or if he did us all a favor and quit his job.”
She wanted to defend Elliot, but couldn’t bring herself to expend the energy. “Right. Thanks.”
“People break the rules, but if they get caught, they’re pretty fucked. Romantic or sexual relationships between captains and their teams are one of the few things the Foundation bothers to actually enforce. They don’t love the idea of captains dating people from other teams, but it isn’t technically a rule. So Amelia and Riley are fine. But Ghost Douche could get himself and Saskia canned immediately if they did anything. But I guess as long as you’re not planning to make a move on Amelia or your fucking cousin, you’re fine.”
“Right, thanks.”
She was still feeling that lingering self-pity though as he clipped his backpack shut. “Do you think she’s prettier than me?” she asked, mostly joking, but not completely.
“Yes.”
“Fuck you,” she said, her surprise at him actually answering forcing out a laugh.
The corners of Bradley’s mouth kept turning up like he was trying not to laugh too as he fought with a stuck zipper on his bag. “He’s not worth worrying about,” he said. “You’re never going to be happy with him.”
She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but he clearly didn’t care as he stood up. “I’m leaving. Litter box is clean. Call if you need me.”
Elliot was actually on call tonight and she knew Bradley knew the schedule too. But she just nodded as he picked up his bag and headed out the door.
***
The next day, Gabriella, Bradley, and Father McEnerney sat in the living room of Nick Bana’s demon infested home while Nick paced guiltily by the fireplace. “I couldn’t get anything about the contract,” he said. “I tried to ask it and it just laughed at me.”
“That’s usually what happens when you ask a demon for a favor,” Father McEnerney pointed out as Nick looked out the window toward the back yard. “Do you remember the exact language you used?”
“I told him I wanted stability for my future family.”
“Exactly that?” Father McEnerney asked. “No other requests, no other conditions?”
“No!” Nick said, spinning around on the priest. “No, I swear, those are the only words I said. I remember it so vividly, I have nightmares about it. I know exactly what I said to him.”
“Alright then,” Father McEnerney said.
He took a long breath and let it out with a sigh. “Demon deals are specific to the demon, we discussed that last time. And since this one didn’t give you its name or title, I suspect that it’s something a bit more garden variety.”
As Father McEnerney said it, his head jerked violently to the side as though something had just slapped him. Blood began seeping from a scratch across his cheek as he looked back at them, slightly less stunned than Gabriella had expected.
“OUT!” he roared suddenly, standing and holding up the crucifix hanging around his neck. “GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!”
A vase fell to the floor beside Gabriella as Father McEnerney began yelling in Latin, the words harsh and angry, but similar enough to the cleansing rituals they did regularly that Gabriella recognized it for what it was. A moaning sound filled the room as he chanted, reverberating through her skull as she tried not to wince. This had been a possibility today, they all knew it. And technically, she was prepared for it, especially if she didn’t think too hard about the fact that she was in the presence of a demon.
Beside her, Bradley lit a small cake of incense with a shaky hand. The sweet smell came first, then the smoke trailing lazily up from the small cup in his other hand. He was doing everything in his power to not throw up in the middle of the ritual and she had to respect the stubbornness, even if he shouldn’t have come here at all today.
The moaning grew louder and she knew that the demon was toying with them. Was it that offended at being called “garden-variety?” Demons must have egos, it made sense, but it seemed like such a small thing to get mad about.
“Open the window,” she instructed Nick, who was inching toward the door, likely to draw the demon away from the rest of them.
“What-”
“Now!”
Father McEnerney was shouting now, his Latin taking the cadence of an irritated parent on their last nerve. Nick hurried back to the window and pulled it open, knocking over the small plant that was sitting on the windowsill. Gabriella shifted so that Bradley could move with the incense, getting it throughout the room as she sprayed holy water into the corners, feeling ridiculous with her little pink spray bottle. This was all enough to get it out for a little while, but not forever.
No, if there was a deal going on, the demon wasn’t leaving Nick Bana’s side until either the deal was fulfilled or the contract was somehow null and void.
The moaning slowed and lessened until it was gone completely. Gabriella sprayed a few more times in the silence, definitely damaging some small knick-knacks in the process. But there was no reaction.
“Right,” Father McEnerney said hoarsely, wiping at the drying blood on his face. “Anyway, the terms are set by the demon. So that means the demon also has to fulfill its side. You said that you haven’t gotten what you wanted, so we have an argument that the demon is violating its own contract.”
Gabriella had read The Devil and Daniel Webster when she was a child, but she had never considered that it might end up being an instruction manual at her job. “Can we prove it?” she asked.
“I suppose,” Father McEnerney said. “If you can prove that you haven’t gotten stability, then it’ll have no choice but to release you.”
“But I have,” Nick said. “I mean, I think I have. I bought the house to give my family that stable place to live when I’m gone.”
“But is that stability?” Gabriella asked.
“Wait,” Bradley said, leaning his head on his hand beside Gabriella. “Is there anything wrong with the house?”
“Yeah, but every house has issues.”
“I mean, really wrong. Did you get it inspected?”
Gabriella remembered when some of her cousins began buying houses. Her cousin Manny had been adamant that either he was going to inspect them or they had to show him that they’d hired someone to do it. If one person said they weren’t getting a home inspection, he’d threatened to show up at their house with his kit.
“No,” Nick said.
Bradley lifted his head and glared at him. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Have you ever bought a house?” Nick demanded. “It’s a tough market. You have to be willing to negotiate if you have even a chance at getting something. I had to battle it out with some other bidders for this house, so I said I’d waive the inspection.”
“Meaning nobody checked if the house is stable,” Gabriella said. “But O’Toole mentioned so many things he did to the house or brought into it. It could be full of potential dealbreakers.”
She turned to Bradley. “I think we should call my cousin Manny in to help us. He’s a licensed home inspector.”
“I’m sorry, are we temporarily replacing one cousin with fourteen others?” he demanded.
“If they can help us, then yes, we are,” Gabriella retorted. “Let’s call him and he can inspect the house. O’Toole really messed this place up and if you bought it without checking any of the shit he did, then maybe you didn’t get what you needed.”
Nick looked like he hardly dared to believe it. Gabriella felt the same way, but it was the only chance they had.
