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I finished telling Ajax about our new, semi-resident guest, and Precious's revelations about the memory loss and the zombie attack. I wanted to personally introduce her and allow her to explain everything herself, but she came in after school and left after a couple of hours, which completely missed Ajax's shift. It had been several days already, and I didn't feel comfortable leaving him in the dark any longer.
"I think she'll be able to help us," I concluded.
Ajax nodded in agreement. "I'll have to bake her some 'Welcome to the No Spell' cookies," he stated.
"Oh...no," I replied, not wanting to scare the poor child away or crush Ajax's feelings. "No need to trouble yourself with that... she's working with some very delicate potions and cross-contamination is always an issue."
“Well," he said, putting down his teacup. "I have been telling you for ages that having another witch on-hand would make things a lot easier both of us."
There was a ring from the front counter. We both started to rise.
"Sit!" I said, waving him back down. "You've been up all night. I'll handle this."
Ajax grabbed my sleeve. "Before I forget...." He reached into his pocket and pulled out something wrapped prettily in a silk handkerchief. "This is for you."
"It's not even my birthday!" I laughed. I carefully untied the package. "Oh, Ajax..."
He had smithed my magic stone into an elegant bracelet of silver. Not only was a stunning piece of art, the metal would burn almost any of the bad guys who tried to grab it.
"I don't deserve a friend like you..." I whispered.
The bell at the counter rang again, cutting off the rest of the words I wanted to say, but Ajax gave me a smile and nestled back into his chair. His lids were heavy and I had a feeling his snores would be rattling the windows before too long. Who knows, maybe they would rattle the girls out of the stained glass and our problems would be solved. The girls had stopped trying to spell things for me, but at least no more had appeared.
I smiled as I walked out to the front counter. A pale woman stood there, twisting her handkerchief. Defensively, I scanned the register. No "John Doe" had signed in.
"May I help you?" I asked.
She coughed lightly and looked around to make sure we were alone. "I heard... I heard you helped people with problems?"
I wasn't entirely sure what the proper response to this was. "I do what I can. Tell me, what seems to be troubling you?"
"Vampires attacked my brother." Nervously, she leaned across the counter. "I only came because I heard that you might be able to help."
"And how did you come to think I might be able to help?"
She took a piece of paper and pushed it across the desk. "I saw your advertisement in the paper."
I read it. It was the advertisement for the No Spell that ran every week, but there were other words there, too.
Suddenly, the front door opened and Precious came bouncing through.
"PRECIOUS!" I shouted.
She suddenly stopped and replied cautiously, "Yes?"
I held up the advertisement. "Do you know what this is about?"
Her face lit up and she strode over. "It worked!"
"I'm sorry?"
The woman was looking at our exchange with confusion.
"I cast a spell on the ad," said Precious. "For all those undead, they would just see the words that we put in there. But people with a heartbeat? With a calling for settling a score? They'd see those words."
I realized that I must have a grudge needing settling if I was able to see the words myself. "Problems with the undead? Friends or family harmed? Contact the No Spell Hotel for help. Discretion and privacy guaranteed."
Precious beamed.
I knew I should be angry with her for doing this without clearing it with me first, but as the weight of my new bracelet hung on my wrist, asking me to find the magic to activate it, I just smiled. "Clever. Very, very clever."
"Can you help me?" asked the woman.
"We'll do what we can," I promised. I turned back to Precious, about to give her an assignment when it dawned on me. "Shouldn't you be in school?"
"Weekend," she replied, like she couldn't believe someone would forget.
"Fair enough," I said. I knew I needed to make sure she was keeping up on her school spell work or her parents would be down here with more wrath than any monster we were trying to lure in. "Well, perhaps you could get all the details from our guest while I make some arrangements with my partner, Ajax. Whom you need to meet!"
And I needed to inform about this new development of vengeance based advertising...
Precious came around the counter and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil from the drawer. She licked the tip of the lead. "Now, do you have a phone number or address for this vampire...?"
As she dealt with our new customer, I steeled my courage and walked back into my office. Though I tried to be as gentle as I could opening the door, hoping that Ajax would be fast asleep and I could delay this confession, his eyes popped open immediately.
"Precious is here!" I told him. I held up my hand as he started to rise. "She's with a guest. Which gives me time to tell you about a little... idea she and I had." I held up his beautiful bracelet, the dark blue stone winking in the morning light. "It relates to this. And you are probably going to be angry."
Ajax rubbed his lids. "Well, you already woke me up. Get on with it then."
I took a deep breath. I didn't want any ire falling on my new apprentice, so told it to him like it was all my idea. "I realized that in order to activate this stone, I am going to need to have a steady supply of the undead. And... it could get complicated. I could either wander around every night hoping to come across a corpse in the worst parts of town or start inviting the undead to the No Spell and offing them here, which might result in more of this situation we're in with my coven. They get so angry when I take it upon myself to stake undeserving vampires."
Ajax blinked, and then calmly folded his hands on his lap.
I allowed the plan to spill out. "But Precious thought of this idea that there are some creatures no one wants. Creatures with warrants that the Other Side Department of Justice would pay to be rid of." I pushed back my shoulders and straightened my spine. "I want to invite this scum of the Other Side to the No Spell Hotel. In fact, I want to make sure that we target them specifically. I want to run specials. I want to fill this building to the brim with the nastiest elements of the Other Side."
He squinted. "Do you have wicked witch syndrome? Have you noticed any of your skin turning green?"
"I'm feeling just fine."
"So, we turn the No Tell into a bit of a roach hotel. Except the bugs that do not check out are the creatures everyone wants someone to get rid of."
"Yes."
"So... assassinations?"
"You make it sound so coarse."
"You are talking about luring monsters here to kill them."
"Bounty hunters! Trackers, even! Banishers of bad monsters who have escaped the jaws of justice because justice doesn't have teeth big enough. But instead of wandering aimlessly to find these creatures, we wait like a spider in a web for people to hire us." I wet my lips. "Like the woman who is currently speaking with Precious at the front counter."
Ajax rubbed his lower lip with his thick finger. "She's paying us?"
"Yes."
"And the court is paying us?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure this is something we want to do?"
"The roof is leaking. The walls are cracked. This place is falling apart around our ears and I have no way of making things better unless something changes. The gargoyles have still not returned to our eaves. So, this is the something that is going to change all of that. We get paid, I get magic, and the Other Side thanks us for being of service."
Ajax cracked his knuckles and tilted his head from side to side, causing his neck to pop as he thought. Finally, he asked, "Can I have a new ax?"
It was such an odd question. "Well... I suppose..."
"If you're doing this so that you get a new broom, I want an axe." He stared me down with his deep-set eyes, then smiled.
"Fine. You may have a new axe."
He leaned back, a dreamy look settling on his face. "I always did hate sucking up to those bloodsuckers."