whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick (26 page)

What would she do with super hearing? Hmm. The thought was tempting.

Cool air hit her in the face as soon as she stepped out of the building, making her wish she’d remembered to grab her jacket. Neither Karl nor Dexx were bothered by the chill, so maybe she was just being a wimp.

Dexx strode to Jackie. “I’ll follow.”

Karl nodded and brought her government-issue brown sedan to life.

Paige slid into Jackie’s passenger seat as Dexx made her purr.

Dexx twisted in his seat, backing the large car up before turning back to follow the sheriff. “What are we going to do about the treaty?.”

“Good question.” Paige watched the tall pine trees pass. “Did you know that witches can live for hundreds of year?”

“Nooo.”

“Yeeees.”

“How—” He glanced at her, his face twisted in confusion. “How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know, but I’m guessing it’s blood magick.”

“You don’t—” He pushed his lips out and shook his head before continuing. “—you don’t know how to do that, do you?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m fairly certain there’s chickens involved.”

“Oh, good. I was worried.”

This was what she loved about him. Her understood her sarcasm, got her dark humor. Also, he brought it out in her.

Karl disappeared down a small one lane road.

“Portland, for some reason, has been calling to me.”

Dexx frowned and followed. “I vaguely remember you saying that. Out loud.”

“Weird, that. Well, there might be a reason. The Eastwood Witches. That’s where they are.”

“Like, in the TV show?”

“There’s a TV show?’

“You really need to get out more.”

“And by ‘out,’ you mean ‘in and on the couch,’ right?”

He glared at her.

The demon door gyrated inside her, shadowy arms leaching forward and tugging on her. “Demons!”

Dexx slammed on the brakes.

Karl turned up a drive and disappeared again.

“Where?” Dexx demanded, Jackie rumbling around them.

“Close.” The door pulled on her, wanting to go to the demon. She almost heard a siren song singing her into submission. Her will was slipping.

“Give me something.”

“I don’t
have
anything!”

“Think! Now, come on. Where?”

Her witch abilities were super-charged. What about her demon gift? Was it? She hadn’t tried. Didn’t want to. Couldn’t.

But he was right. They couldn’t afford for her to be useless. Skirting around the flaring edges of her raw gift, around the runes that seemed to glow a steel blue and ooze a black smoke, she reached inside herself. Where?

The blue steel flared and the smoke drifted to the left where Sheriff Karl had disappeared.

Paige pointed to the left.

“Okay. How many?”

She had no idea how to tell. She didn’t have her scry globe. She couldn’t just open her palms and see how many demons were around.

The smoke fluttered like a finger beckoning, then a single tendril pulled forward.

That was new. “One. I think. I don’t know.”

“We can take one.” He put Jackie back in drive and pulled forward. “You just tell me when the pull becomes too much.”

She nodded, but remained quiet.

Tony’s car was already in the driveway. Tony and Jack greeted Sheriff Karl at the base of the steps to a wooden church.

“So,” Dexx said to the group by way of greeting, “there’s a demon inside, which means we’re one man down.”

Karl frowned at him.

“I’ll stay out here,” Paige said. “Play defense if something gets out or if something wants to come in.” This was
stupid
. She felt so helpless. Gah!

Karl shook her head, then nodded. “Okay. Are we ready?”

Dexx walked to the trunk of his car and grabbed his duffle bag. “Keep him busy. I’ll trap him inside.”

Tony glanced at Paige. “What can I do? He’s a demon.”

She didn’t know.

“Attack his meat suit,” Dexx said, pulling out a knife from the trunk before closing it.

Something jerked on Paige’s soul. She gritted her teeth and stumbled backward a step. “He knows we’re here. So, you might want to hurry.”

Dexx handed Tony his demon-hunting knife. “Use this, but be careful.”

“Why?”

Dexx stopped next to him, shouldering his duffle. “Because there’s a human in there who’s been carjacked. Don’t kill him if you don’t have to.” He disappeared behind the small, wooden church.

“But,” Paige said, glaring at the door, “if you have no other choice? Jam that knife in the demon’s chest.” She licked her lips and shoved her useless hands in her pockets, shivering from the spring chill. “Kill them both.”

T
he door to hell flared painfully, tugging her closer to the church, drawing her in.

Blessed Mother, she needed to figure out how to fix that.

With a demon in there, she needed her gift.

Okay. But she
couldn’t
use it. What
could
she do?

Well, she was a witch and she could use the elements really, really well. So, maybe she could—

What? Call up the wind? Blow down the door?

Call down the rain? What about the thunder? Do a little Thor impression? She needed a hammer for that.

This was getting her nowhere.

She really needed to refresh her witch skills. She’d always relied heavily on her demon gift. But now? Yeah. It might have been worth paying a bit more attention to Alma when she’d been teaching basic spells.

Shit. Basic spells. She could do more than just call up the wind. She could…

Turn a man into a toad?

Her phone rang the ringtone for an unknown caller. She almost hit ignore, but something told her to answer. “Detective Whiskey.”

“Paige.”

Rage flared in Paige’s chest as soon as she heard the nasally voice on the other end of the line.

“It’s your mother.”

Oh. She knew.

“I heard you remember me, now.”

“I never forgot you, Rachel. I was made to forget my daughter.”

“Whom I saved, but I’m sure you have it in your head that I stole her.”

Paige wanted to punch something, maim something. She wanted to rip and tear something, shred it.

“I take your silence as a sign that you’ve, perhaps, learned your lesson?”

Which one? The lesson about being evil by birth? “What do you want, Rachel?”

“Do you have something more important to do?”

“I am in the middle of a life and death situation.”

“It’s always something else with you, isn’t it?”

Paige fucking hated that woman. “Someone is about to die. Right now.”

“Sounds like an excuse. Fine. If now is inconvenient, I can call back later.”

“Rachel,” Paige growled, her vision flaring. “What did you want?”

“Well, I was just going to offer to send you some photos of Leah since you remember her now. Not that it’s probably that important to you anyway, but I thought I would offer.”

“I would love pictures.” Any gift from that woman was a Trojan horse.

“I’ll mail you a thumb drive with them on it.”

“I have email.”

“Yes, well, I don’t know exactly how to do all that. I’ll just finish Photoshopping them and then save them onto a thumb drive.”

“You can Photoshop, but you don’t know how to email them?”

“The files will be too large, Paige. It always has to be your way, doesn’t it? You always have to parade the fact that you know better than everyone else.”

That’s what
Rachel
did. Paige swallowed those words. “Maybe you could ask your son.”

“Nick is your brother.”

“I didn’t think you’d want to muddy his image with my connection to him.” They barely knew one another, but they were
trying
to build a relationship.

Rachel didn’t immediately answer.

A shot rang out from the church.

“What you must think of me.”

Paige’s heart raced. Yes. She needed to talk to Rachel to rebuild that bridge, but not now. Wrap it up. “I think you hate me.”

“I am the only person on this planet who could ever love you, despite everything you are.”

How could she not hear her own words? “Rachel, I have to go.”

“Someone is dying. Yes. I know. You don’t need to make such stories up.”

“You do remember I’m a homicide detective, right?”

“Yes,” Rachel said, her nasally tone flat. “You’re called when the person is already dead, so unless you have a psychic telling you something and you actually had the heart to do something to help someone other than yourself…Really, Paige.”

Something hard slammed into the wall and the church shook.

“I have to go.”

Rachel took in a sharp breath and her tone lightened. “I’ll ask
my son
how to send you the photos when he comes home.”

“Great.” It took everything in Paige not to growl at the woman. “I’ve got to go.”

“I really do love you.”

Paige hung up and stared at the church, searching for any signs of who was winning. “I don’t think you know what that word even means.”

Her heart hammering with anger and flaring with hope, her mind raced. What could she do?

For whom? For that shifter inside the church?

Perhaps.

For her partners?

Definitely.

For her daughter?

Her heart twisted painfully. She’d let her daughter down by failing to keep her anger in check the night Rachel had crossed state lines.

Would she do things different with what knew now?

Rachel had extended the olive branch. That had to count for something.

Or did it? If she had the ability to go back and do it all over again, she’d do the same thing, except maybe this time, she’d go herself, wrap her own hands around her mother’s neck, and watch as the light slowly dimmed.

She breathed that information in. Maybe her mother was right. She was evil.

Or maybe she was simply tired of dealing with the evil being handed to her. Her mother was evil, powered by angels who wanted nothing more than to destroy mankind in any way possible. The demons were revolting, attempting to “awaken” humans before they were ready. War was imminent. She was the only one capable of stopping it because of her gift.

A gift she couldn’t
fuck frelling use!

Her emotions raced from her in a wave of seething, roiling, pitching red, like a bubbling storm.

Blue-grey fog met it, swirling around the meadow, hiding the church from view. Tendrils of the humid smoke touched the volatile emotions Paige had purged.

Similar to Karl’s spirit, the fog sent sparks of blinding light into Paige’s rage, lancing it with holes.

Paige’s head jerked and she stared at it, not with her witch vision, but with her real eyes. She could see the fog and her emotions, with her real eyes.

Snakes of light raced from the fog, slithering into the dark, red cloud of her emotions. To banish? To enlighten?

Her rage intensified. She had earned the right to loathe her mother. She deserved revenge. She would not be smothered again. She would not remain silenced.

Silenced?
a silky voice asked, permeating her mind.
No.

The blue-grey mist advanced.

Control?
the silky voice grew harsh.
Never.

The red of Paige’s emotions cooled to a throbbing pink.

Assist?

Looking for anything, a face, a location of the voice, Paige found nothing.

Possibly. Cage? Unthinkable.

Paige took a step back. The only thing she could see was Tony’s car beside her. Had she done something wrong? Had the All Mother come to her? Sent this fog?

Pain drilled through Paige’s temple as she continued to fight for air.

Like what? Think the wrong thought out loud? As far as Paige knew, she was still free to
think
whatever she liked as long as she didn’t act on it. And, even if she did, the All Mother would judge her in person. She wouldn’t send…whatever this was.

The choke hold on Paige’s throat lessoned.

You did not think wrong
, the silky voice said.

Paige straightened, reeling in her emotions, the constriction on her air receding almost completely.

You were honest, a thing that is rare as pure snow.

Rare as pure snow?

The mist folded backward and a face emerged; long muzzle, small, round eyes, cat-like ears atop the head.

Animal spirit?

Yes.

Paige’s heart raced. This couldn’t be an animal spirit. Aaron had seen what would happen if she was bitten.

We have been watching you since you entered our space.

Space? Animal spirits had space?

Sacred ground. I believe you have heard this term.

“I didn’t think we had any in Colorado.”

You are wrong.

“Well.” Paige shivered as cold swept through her. “I don’t know what you’re doing here. I haven’t been bitten. Dexx was.”

And he is working through his change now.

“Is he?” Paige studied the foggy cat face, trying to glean anything from it. “Will he change?”