Hallow's: Witch's Brew

Eleven

d4vd- Poetic Vulgarity

"This is a broadcast blocker," Elvia says and sits on my dining room table in front of my mother and both my sisters. Celest and my mother visibly tense up. 

"It's so tiny," Zuri lifts it up. "How does it work?" 

"I hook it up to my router. So, anything that isn't under my account won't have access to any digital server in the house," 

"Everything else will be canceled out. It's a security protocol we have back at W.B.C. Tower. So, none of our secrets get leaked," Elvia adds. 

"How efficient is it?" Mom asks. 

"Best system in the world. It dropped last year. A gift from tech genius Decarious Adams to the owner of Vermillion Belladonna Blackstone," Elvia smiles fondly. She deals with B.B. and Decarious all the time. 

"I have something for you," I tell her going over to my desk. 

"What do you need three monitors for?" Celest asks. 

"It's five," I correct her and push the two in front of the three back up. "Each one is for a different country," I explain and start up the two towers under the desk. "So, I spoke with Delilah this morning," 

"What?" Elvia spins around excitedly. 

"Yeah, I already had a meeting with the board, and they all like the business plan she sent over. I made a couple of changes and she agreed to them. Would you like to see it?" 

"Wha-I- um," she scratches her eyebrow the way she does every time she gets nervous. "You gave me a whole speech about how you didn't want to merge with Vermillion because it's a huge corporate fuck fest and you've got a contract now? What the fuck did I miss?" 

"Nothing. I changed my mind," I shrug. She takes the envelope and sits it on the desk beside me.

"Gaz," she places her hand on my shoulder. "This is your entire life's work. You built this from the ground up. Nothing she could have offered you would make you change your mind. What is going on with you? What happened?" 

"Ellie, it's done," I shrug her off. 

"Gaz-" she shakes her head. 

"Noah had spirits attached to him. His affinity is crazy strong and because they were attached to him we couldn't send them away or put them to rest ourselves. So, I called Merciful Death to take care of the problem. It was why I was so weak. Why he was so fucking erratic," 

"Fuck," she turns away. "What else did she want?" 

"Joanna wants me to join her in Hellbourne," I answer. "B.B. offered her the sacred terrain just over Hell's lock. She's starting an Elemental Coven and she wants me to be a part of it," 

"What?" My mother shouts. "You're not thinking about leaving again, are you?" 

"I don't have to leave it's a forty-minute drive from here. But yes. I am thinking about it. This is a big opportunity for me. Working alongside Delilah Blackstone and Joanna Lumen. The strongest Witch in the world. It's more than I can ask for. I told you wasn't rejoining the coven," 

"You have made some really stupid choices regarding the rest of us already," she shakes her head. "You have humiliated our coven since you became the storm, Gastly. You hid your mate. You sold witch secrets to mortals. You fucking married a human rejecting your mate and our coven altogether. And now this? I will not stand by and watch you betray this family anymore," 

"And what do you plan on doing about it?" I scoff. 

"Gaz," Celest glares at me. 

"What has the coven ever done for us?" Zuri is the one that comes to my rescue. "They've been holding Gaz's magic against us since they took it from her. We have been treated like nothing since then. Who betrayed whom? This would never have happened if Celestia hadn't done what she did,"