whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick (29 page)

She knew what was going on.

He was being bombarded by death energy, or whatever it was called. Life energy, maybe? He needed shields.

Biting her lip, she reached through the energy. It barely buzzed her. It didn’t even raise the hairs on her arms.

When she touched his shoulder, though, electricity coursed up her arm, making her hand more numb. Her head throbbed.

Alma had taught her how to shield, but she’d never taught anyone else before. What was she supposed to do?

Her spirit animal had no suggestions.

Paige pulled on her center, her connection to the All Mother.
She
didn’t see life as anything more than the living. No good. No evil. Just the circle of life. Birth. Death. Eaten. Birth. Death. Eaten.

She needed advice on what to do in the death cycle.

A tendril of curiosity pinged her like a sonar beacon.
What is overwhelming him?

That was an easy answer. The light.

What
is
the light?

Paige reached with her mind and tentatively touched it. Voices and images assaulted her.

An old woman holding a little girl’s hand.

A boy cradling a dog.

A woman, bloodied and hanging upside down from her seatbelt, reaching for her husband.

Paige pulled her mind away and blinked. Information.

No. That’s not quite right,
the All Mother said.
Think past that. Dig deeper. What is overwhelming him?

Paige reached out again, bracing herself this time.

Sorrow.

Fear.

Anger at having a life cut short.

Images. A car accident.

A child on the street, her bicycle not far from her.

An old man on his bed, the smell of rot filling the room.

Sounds.

Screams of a mother.

Unrelenting sobs.

What is overwhelming him?

The idea that death was bad.

The All Mother gave an empathic nod of approval, and disappeared.

Paige loved the All Mother, but there were times when the higher being thought, perhaps, that Paige knew more than she did, or understood more than she could, or could do more than was possible.

What was she supposed to do with this information? If Nick, her brother, was there? Maybe. As the empath, he could change people’s emotions. Or so she’d heard. She barely knew him.

The numbness in her hand abated as a dull pain radiated up her arm instead. She bit her lip and tried. She pushed her thoughts and emotions at him. She sent him images, tying the emotions from the All Mother with it.

Death was death.

It wasn’t something to be feared.

It wasn’t something look forward to.

It wasn’t something to run away from.

It wasn’t something to run toward.

Jack raised his head, his eyes black, his expression ragged.

Maybe it was working.

She cupped his face in her hands and kept at it. Human words couldn’t fully capture her message. She kept shoving those messages toward him.

Something flitted inside her mind, foreign, not belonging to her.

A child in a hospital bed, bald head, pale, lethargic. Sorrow and desperation distorted the image as if the emotions were heat waves in a parking lot.

Her heart twisted, but she knew the All Mother’s answer. All living things die. She changed the image. The child no longer suffered. She’d found peace.

Jack shook his head.

It’s something you have to come to terms with, Jack,
Paige thought as loudly as she could. She wasn’t a telepath, so she wasn’t sure how he was going to get that message. Then again, she wasn’t an empath either and seemed to be doing a fair job at communicating with emotions.
Death will teach you things about life you’ll wish you never knew—
like how unimportant they all were in the great cheese maze—
but this is what you are. You accept it. Or you don’t.

The light stream fluttered, flickered, and dimmed as it was absorbed into him.

The pain radiating up Paige’s arms stopped. She released her hold on his face and sat back.

Jack straightened his back, his eyes closed, his hands palm down on his legs.

Paige massaged her hands. Fire shot through them like a limb that had fallen asleep.

“Are you…” Dexx paused as he took a step toward them. “Okay?”

Paige was tired. It had been a long day. Lots of discoveries, taxing phone conversations, the whole animal spirit thing, Dexx being bitten, getting her gift back, and now this. Saving Jack from being overwhelmed by his own damned gift.

Where were the other reapers when they were needed?

Jack opened his eyes, the black receding into his irises. “I know where the others are.”

“Others?” With everything that had happened, Paige’s brain scrambled to figure out what he was talking about.

“The other shifters.”

Tony came within view. “Where?”

If Jack the Reaper saw them, that couldn’t be good. “How much time do we have before they’re all dead?”

He glanced at her. “Not a lot.”

That wasn’t quite as helpful as she’d hoped. “Where are they?”

“Coming here.”

That was, maybe, more helpful. “What are they doing?”

“Nothing. They think they’re coming home, but Sven’s using them as bombs.”

What? Why?

Because he didn’t get what he wanted out of them. So, they were nothing more than collateral damage.

“It’s the chip,” Jack said. “It’s also a bomb.”

“In their head.” Fuck. “Great.”

Tony walked toward the door. “I’ll tell Karl to round them up and call John. We need to get as many of those chips removed as we can.”

Thank goodness someone was thinking. “Jack, do you know where they’re going? ‘Here’ is a pretty vague location.”

He tipped his head and looked up at her with tired, drooping eyes. “I know where all of them are going to be.”

Paige took in a deep breath. “Find some paper. Something to write with. Dexx. You got anything in that bag of yours?”

He was already searching.

Gummy Bear
rang out in the church, bouncing off the walls. Paige pulled out her phone and answered. “Go, Les.”

“Busy?” Leslie asked. “Got it. On it. Treaty. Found it. Not good. We’re not supposed to be
talking
to them.”

Already knew that. “So, I was led here to what?”

“Start another war.”

“For what purpose?” Paige knew what purpose.

It suddenly clicked. Sven needed power and he’d failed to gain that power by removing the animal spirit from the shifters. So, he was going to watch as the shifters syphoned the power from a witch to see if he could replicate the process.

But
she
was the only witch in Nederland at the moment. So, had he intended to sacrifice her? After all the messages and cryptic guiding?

What if this whole ploy had been nothing more than to gain power for himself? What if there wasn’t a great, grand plan? What if the only reason he’d tried to open the Gate was to gain access to the power on the other side, to recharge? What if the murders in Louisiana had been to syphon power from the witches?

That still didn’t add up. Not really. Yeah. Some of the pieces fit together. The shapeshifter parts.

Leslie was still talking.

“Sorry,” Paige interrupted. “What?”

“Distracted?”

“Kind of. Have the ability to save people who haven’t died yet.”

“Got a psychic?”

“Better. A reaper.”

“Seriously?”

“Yup.”

“Treaty? Now or later?”

“We’re trying to save the shifters right now, so, later. Once I’ve saved them, we’ll talk treaty and figure out how to clear this up.”

“No problem.”

“Question.”

“Answer.”

Paige stared around the walls of the church, recalling her blood oath. “Was this treaty signed in blood?”

Leslie paused, then said softly, “Yes.”

“Find out which line, if you can.”

“You’re talking as if we’re noble.”

“We kind of are. The Whiskey line is—well, look at it. Every single one of us has gifts. Every single one. What other witch family has that?”

“None.”

“At least none that we know of. Just see what you can find out?”

“Will do. Save lives.”

“Have a baby.”

“On it.”

“Bye.”

She hung up the phone.

“Paige.” Tony walked back into the church, his expression stormy. “They’ve already started arriving. They’re mostly downtown, tearing up the place.”

What did she know about shifters from the lore she’d been reading? Fiction often got a lot of stuff wrong, but there was still a lot of stuff they got almost right. “How many alphas do you have in town?”

“Fewer than you might think,” Tony answered. “Not all alphas get along.”

She worked with men who thought they were alphas almost every day. She understood that. “Tell Sheriff Karl she needs as many of them as she can get.”

“Wait,” Dexx said, raising his hand, his head lowered, his face folded up in pain.

The moon. The sun was falling. The moon was rising. Was Dexx turning? “What?”

“Remember—” He interrupted himself, pinching his eyes closed in pain. “The station,” he panted.

Aaron and Rory had been chipped and something about Aaron had caused the other shifters to go against their better judgment.

“Are any of the other chipped shifters alphas?”

Tony shook his head. “Only Aaron.”

Paige shook her head at Dexx. “Then, they should be safe.”

“The moon.”

Yeah. The super moon. The power of it thrummed through her as it rose in the sky. Soon, the moon would claim power over the sky, over the shifters.

Over her.

Would the animal spirit within her help or hinder?

“Come on. Jack, with me.” She rummaged through Dexx’s pant pockets and took the keys. Her heart twisted, wanting to stay and help him, but there were too many others out there who needed her help. She didn’t know if she
could
help them, but she had to try.

Dexx didn’t complain. He just sat there, doubled over, his body tense.

“Tony, take Dexx. Find John. He’s taking a turn for the worse.” She gathered up Dexx’s guns and other tools, shoving them in the bag as fast as she could. “Jack, tell me you have that list handy.”

He nodded and walked quickly to her side. “I have the list. But you need to get to this one.” He pointed to one in particular. “Hailey is going to be attacked by demons.”

Excellent.

“Pea?” Dexx was on his feet, sweat pouring from him. His face was ashen. He looked gaunt.

Shit. What could she do?

“Be careful.”

Tony wrapped his arm under Dexx’s armpits to support his weight. “We got this.”

Paige couldn’t watch Dexx die all over again. She just couldn’t. “Survive.”

He nodded, his lips cocked to one side in an exhausted smile. “Sure. No problem.”

Her animal spirit growled and Paige let it erupt from her mouth. She slammed her right palm onto his chest, forcing her will and the will of her animal spirit into his soul. She whispered fiercely against his lips, “Survive.”

His green gaze caught hers. Surprise shown through them. He nodded once, twice, three times.

She spun on her heel, grabbed Jack, and left.

P
aige drove to the center of town, her headlights providing little assistance in the near-dusk light. Nederland down town was like a lot of older towns with buildings that reminded a person that the past wasn’t so long ago. She parked Jackie in front of the old mercantile store.

People ran all over the streets, half of them shifting, most of them fighting. Trash, debris, cars strewn across the lanes, doors still open, music blaring. The mercantile was the furthest Paige had been able to make it.

Jack stared at Paige.

Paige stared at Jack.

What the fuck were they supposed to do?

Paige swallowed, twisted to reach bag of weapons in the back, and pulled out two knives. “The chip is at the base of the skull.” She handed him one.

He gave her a look of what-the-fuck.

“If we’re going to save them, we have to remove their implant.”

“How do we know which ones have it?” He looked out the window, his face twisted with incredulity. “They’re all mad.”

Paige caught a glimpse of Sheriff Karl. She stood tall in the center of a circle of shifters who were all on their knees. “Not all of them. Just…I don’t know. Feel for it.” She opened the door and got out.

“Great.” Jack got out as well, slamming the door closed behind him.

“Also,” Paige said as the information re-pinged itself against the insides of her skull, “you know how each one is going to die. Which ones are going to explode? Those are the ones with the chip.”

He winced. “Right. Shit. Fuck. Crap. Ah, hell.”

Two shifters, one a bird of some sort and half formed, the other still mostly human, turned to them, their eyes yellow, their teeth bared.

“Just remember,” Jack shouted, gripping his knife. “You need to get to the bridge and you’re running out of time.”

She scanned the immediate area, but all she saw were old buildings and people and chaos. The bridge was on the other side of town, but more than that, she just didn’t know.