“Not me,” Kayla says as she rises and gathers the detritus into her palm and deposits it in the trash. “Anything else that you can remember.”
“I think that’s it,” he looks at all of us briefly. “Can I ask why she needed me? Why didn’t she just jump into Kat the way she seems to just wash over me?”
“If I had to guess, which I do,” Ian begins with a sigh, “I’d say it’s firstly because Kat isn’t a conduit for the paranormal.”
“A con-du-what now?” Mario asks, knitting his eyebrows.
“Someone who can easily channel the paranormal, like both you and Juniper.” Ian explains patiently with a smile. “But I think it may be more, I think whatever ritual she did served a larger purpose.”
“So how do you kill her, or re-kill her or whatever?” Mario gets up quickly and grabs two more beers, offering one to Kayla who shakes her head and he just shrugs and begins drinking them both, one in each large paw.
“There has to be an object which is tied to whatever spell she cast before she died,” Ian answers.
“It’s a mirror,” Mario pipes up with absolute surety burning on his face. “My god, it has to be. One in particular, with gold leaf—a monstrosity of a fucker.”
Immediately the heirloom mirror hanging in my den floats into my mind. It’s one of the few original pieces still in the house, and was adored by my mother. She thought it was the absolute centerpiece of the room. I’d always felt it gaudy, but the craftsmanship was undoubtedly there.
“Is this something we will have to pinch from the heritage society?” Ian asks me, eyes pleading to not have to resort to crime.
“Nope,” I answer with a small smile. “It’s right in my house.”
“So what’s our plan?” Kayla asks, watching side eye as Mario drains one of the beers and sets it down amongst it’s other empty bottle peers.
“Let’s start with what we know,” Ian begins. “Mary used some sort of magic to enter Kat, wants Erik to some extent, whether it’s humping him or hurting him. We also know she is tied to a mirror that is conveniently in Erik’s house.”
“I say we talk to Juniper to piece together anything else she may know, and ultimately lure ‘Kat’ to my house. Would destroying the mirror stop her?”
“I can’t say for sure,” Ian says regretfully. “But I would bet it factors in.”
“We still don’t know her limitations while in Kat,” Kayla points out, getting up again to recycle all the bottles. “Does she have supernatural powers still or is she just left with Kat’s lame upper body strength?”
“She looks pretty toned to me,” Mario says, wiggling his eyebrows a little too much before looking at me contritely. “Sorry, man.”
“She’s always complained about her arms,” Kayla laughs.
“We have a lot of unknowns,” Ian says. “But we can agree Kat has fine arms, and hopefully Mary is bound by earthly limitations while possessing Kat. The fact that she chose someone as physically strong as Mario may indicate that it’s the case.”
“I’d like to be included in banishing her,” Mario says suddenly, sitting up straight, looking at us all like he will not be dissuaded. “I feel invested.”
“Yes,” I say quickly without looking at Kayla and Ian who are probably shooting daggers at me. “Paranormal conduit with inner knowledge of Mary seems like a good person to be able to call. We will let you know how you can play into our plans.”
“So if this Malvina knew Mary in life,” Mario starts, “Do you think they are working together?”
“We have no idea about their relationship except that Malvina was put to death for killing Mary’s husband,” Kayla answers quickly. “If she was put to death erroneously then perhaps she is not in favor of Mary.”
“But again,” Ian stresses. “We don’t actually know.”
“I was thinking maybe I would go to The Bishop and see this Malvina,” Mario offers quietly. “I spent my childhood trying to ignore her, but maybe I should try listening?”
“Are you good with doing that?” I ask, observing his skittish eyes. The thought of it is clearly stressful to him, like an adolescent nightmare come true. The power of that fear never grows out of people, even if they grow to be the size of a tree. Malvina must represent a powerlessness for him, something that he’d tried to overcome.
“I’m not eager, but I want to help,” he admits, clasping his hands together between his legs and staring down at them. “If you think it would do anything.”
“I think we are willing to try it if you are,” Ian tells him, pulling out his card and slapping it down on the table. “This is how you can contact me.”
“I really don’t want to be possessed again,” Mario says, cringing. “Do you think it’s a possibility?”
“I’m afraid I can’t answer that,” Ian admits with a sigh. “Almost everything about this situation is unprecedented. But I would be surprised if Malvina were as strong and energized as Mary, so there’s that.”
“Ok, ninja,” Mario says, rising to show them out. “Why do you look so familiar? Are you that cat outside of The Bishop a couple days ago?”
“That’s me,” Ian laughs. “You weren’t quite yourself the previous two times I’ve seen you.”
“Twice?” Mario asks, surprised. “Well, pleased to finally meet you. You have a hell of a handshake.”
We all chuckle, recalling Ian rendering Mario helpless on his own porch. “Where did you learn that?” I ask.
“I’ve picked up a thing or two,” Ian answers with a shrug as he saunters towards the door with Kayla behind him.
As we leave, Mario approaches Kayla. “Thank you for being so kind.”
She smiles and leans forward to hug him. “Thank you for being so brave.”
“I’m sorry about what I said at the reunion,” Mario says contritely, and his eyes indicate that it’s been weighing on him heavily. “Being drunk doesn’t excuse my objectification and words. I respect you and your girlfriend.”
“It’s forgotten,” she assures him and he smiles
