whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick (32 page)

“Well, I—” The words stopped, but her lips kept moving like a fish.

“No worries. I just want to see your wound. Do you mind?”

The woman didn’t stop her, but she also didn’t provide her consent.

Paige opted to just go with it. She touched the woman’s fingers to reveal the wound.

Blood oozed.

“Okay.” Paige smiled large, clamping the woman’s hand back onto the wound. “Keep a nice, tight pressure on it.” She searched for anything she could use as a bandage.

A torn half of a yellow t-shirt fluttered along the asphalt, helped along by the wind.

It wasn’t great, but it would help.

She stooped to pick it up, then smiled at the woman again. “Okay, I’m going to tie this around your wound, and I’m going to tie it pretty tight. Then, we’re going to find John, the doctor, and get you fixed up. Does that sound okay?”

The woman nodded, her brown eyes more focused. “You’re the witch detective, aren’t you?”

Paige raised her eyebrows and nodded, watching the blood ooze between the woman’s fingers. She completed the tear in the shirt, making it one long strip. “Lift your fingers now.”

The woman did and Paige wrapped the t-shirt around the woman’s arm, tying the knot tight directly on top of the wound. She watched it carefully to see if the blood would seep past the cloth.

It held. For now.

“Okay.” Paige smiled. “Last I saw the doctor, he was down by the consignment shop. You know where that is?”

“Are you the one who brought this on us?”

She’d thought she had been. “Nope. I’m just here, trying to help.”

“My grandmother told stories of witches.”

Paige placed her hand at the small of the woman’s back and guided her down the street. “I’m sure they were lovely.”

“Your people enslaved us.”

“And your people ate us.” Paige bit through her smile. “But, lucky for us, that happened a long, long time ago and now I’m just here to help.” She glimpsed an older woman on the ground, struggling to rise. “Just follow the street to the consignment shop and find the doctor. Okay? You’ll be just fine.”

The woman frowned, but followed Paige’s directions.

The older woman’s legs were pinned under a turned-over motorcycle.

Paige walked toward her. Motorcycles were heavy and she didn’t lift weights, or even work out. Not really. She knew she’d be able to lift it, though, not with ease. She grabbed the handlebar with one hand, lifting up at the seat with the other.

The thing practically righted itself. Surprised, she set it back on its kickstand.

A middle-aged man with a biker beard rushed over, kneeling beside the older woman. He helped her up, glancing at Paige with something close to respect and fear.

Paige continued down the sidewalk. All around her, people cried out to one another, sought help, bandaged the wounded.

And the only thing she could think was, “It wasn’t my fault this time.”

It wasn’t until this moment that she fully felt the impact of the guilt she’d been suppressing since Louisiana. Six people had been murdered within the span of a week there, all for her benefit. That didn’t include the twelve other people who had been killed in the line of fire, or the eight people who were in a mental ward because they had been brutally possessed by demons.

She’d thought that had been her fault.

And then, delivering the key to Sven in exchange for Dexx’s life? More guilt.

But now she realized, that hadn’t been her fault. It was Sven’s fault.
He
was the greedy sonofabitch who needed power because he’d chosen to remain on Earth too long. Those witches? Those citizens? Those police officers? Those wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons?
His
fault.

She had one more mess to clean up before she was done.

Oriel.

She had to find hi—

A roar unlike anything she’d ever heard before ripped through the air.

Everyone quieted, staring in one direction.

The police station.

Paige couldn’t see the station house, but she knew where it was generally.

Dexx.

Aaron stepped up next to her, his chin hair lengthening, his wolf ears rising. His legs kinked oddly at the knee and his claws extended. He glanced at her with glowing blue eyes.

Paige didn’t know what the man intended to do.

“He’s mine to protect,” Aaron said around his elongated teeth. “Let me take care of my pack.”

Her immediate response was to tell him to go frell himself, but Cawli pulled her back by force of will.

How would you feel if he intruded on witch business?

Paige massaged her forehead. The shadows had grown long as the sun began its final decent into darkness. She was ready for this day to be over. She nodded once and took a step back.

Startled cries, roars, caws, and squeaks provided Dexx’s location.

Aaron threw back his head, his hands clawed on either side of his hips, and let out a roar that rumbled in Paige’s ribcage.

A large, pale-striped cat leapt onto the street. One flick of the massive cat’s tail shook the silver sedan behind him and set off the alarm. He was easily the size of the car. Larger than any tiger or lion she’d ever seen.

Two long fangs projected from his upper mouth, curving slightly around his lower jaw.

Aaron went still.

A saber-toothed tiger? Dexx had come back as a saber-toothed tiger? They’d been extinct since, well, since before Jesus was a baby. How in the bloody blue blazes did that work?

Aaron chose well
, Cawli rumbled with pleasure.
Your hunter is a strong man and a viable pack mate.

I’m so glad you approve
, Paige said, slightly irritated. Behind the face of that tiger was a man,
her
man.

Cawli purred.

Damned animal spirit. She longed for a little peace, quiet, and privacy in the confines of her own mind.

That,
Cawli said firmly,
is something you will never have again.

Something Paige knew only so well.

Dexx whuffed and moved slightly. His paws were almost as big as the frelling manhole cover in the middle of the street! That was only a mild exaggeration.

Aaron roared again, not as loud this time.

Dexx flicked his long tail again, breaking a car window with the tip. He spun in surprise, his massive head whipping one way, then another.

Paige ducked beneath Dexx’s swishing tail, her hands out. What could she do?

Aaron shook his head. “I can’t control him,” he said around his teeth.

Your hunter is too strong for our alpha,
Cawli said.

Then we need to find a stronger alpha.

Something surged within Paige. She wouldn’t call it power, but it was
powerful
. Love. Anger. Pain and hurt. Enjoyment and pleasure. The sight of his eyes as they crinkled at the edges when he smiled. The sound of his laugh.

“Hey, Dee,” Paige yelled.

He spun back around, his tail clearing the other cars.

People shrieked and ducked. Those who hadn’t fled yet, picked up their neighbors and friends, and moved away through the debris of the torn-up town.

Dexx’s green eyes stared at her through the face of the largest damned cat Paige had ever seen.

She took a step toward him.

He prepared to pounce, his tail flicking.

“Detective,” Aaron shouted. “I wouldn’t. He’s too strong.”

“You haven’t met me,” she said calmly, her left hand out, palm down. Left hand. The taker of power. Keeping her witch vision off, she syphoned some of the energy off of him, not enough to drain him. Just enough to make him feel as if he weren’t drowning in it. “Hey, Dee,” she said cheerfully as she continued her approach.

He growled low in his throat.

What was it with growls that rattled her chest? “This is gonna be fun.” One more step and she’d be able to put her hand on his fur.

His long whiskers twitched.

His head was two, maybe three times as big as hers. “Now, that you can really purr?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Brings a whole new meaning to fun in the sack.”

He shifted is weight on his raised hind quarters.

She touched the fur at his muzzle, staring into his eyes. They were so large. “Hey, Dexx,” she said quietly so just she and he could hear. “You’re still you. I’m still me.”

He dropped his hind quarters to the pavement.

“You remember what I told Jack?”

He closed his slitted cat eyes and nuzzled her hand.

“You’re not a monster, Dexx. You’re not scared of your hand even though it pulls the trigger on the gun and kills people. You can’t be scared of your spirit animal, either.”

He mewed. Big, humongous cat like that, and he mewed.

Then the fur retreated. The size of his head morphed into the smaller version of his human self, and Dexx lay on the asphalt, naked and dirty.

But alive.

T
hey stayed the night in Nederland. Jack and Dexx were at Sam’s cabin. Tony had a place just outside town. He’d offered Paige his couch.

Sleep hadn’t come easy. She had a lot on her mind, none of which was what should have been on her mind. Like the case? Like the fact that Governor Hicks was going to be framed for Elizabeth Harwood’s murder? She should have been trying to figure out a way to clear his name.

Instead, she worried about Dexx. It ate at her. She couldn’t even get excited over the fact that she was in Tony’s lair. She couldn’t dredge up the will to ask if he slept in a coffin or if Type O tasted better than Type A first thing in the morning. She just didn’t care.

And why had Nazal told her to go home? And why had he seemed to really care? And who was Oriel? And what kind of trouble was her family in? And how much time did she have to get them out?

Sunlight streamed through the crochet curtains covering the front room window. She rubbed eyes that felt filled with grit.

Tony moved about in the kitchen. “I’ve got coffee.”

She pulled herself off the couch, her long brown hair falling into her face. Stretching her back, she padded barefoot over the hardwood floor, pushing her hair back.

“Didn’t sleep very well.” Tony poured coffee into a cup. “I came to check on you at two and you were still awake.”

“Got a lot on my mind. Do you even sleep?”

“For a bit. We don’t need much, though.” He handed her an earth-blue mug.

“Any word on Dexx?”

“No. He has a very difficult road in front of him.”

“How can he be so big? And a saber-toothed tiger?”

“Cat.”

“What?”

“It’s called a saber-toothed cat. And the fact that his animal is so large is why he will have such a difficult time.”

“But what about mass? Doesn’t that have anything to do—it doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s magick, Paige. It doesn’t have to make sense.”

“No, actually, it does. Magick follows the same rules as physics, so why doesn’t this?”

He flipped the hash browns. “I don’t know all the details. I only know that the size of the beast is proportional to the size of the will of both the spirit and the person.”

Cawli remained silent.

“He’ll be okay?”

“He survived the hardest part.”

Paige pulled out a barstool and sat at the smooth, dark granite breakfast bar, leaning her elbows on the stone tile.

“Eggs and bacon cooking. Also, toast, light on the butter.”

“Not hungry.”

“Don’t care.” He shoved a plate at her. “Eat.”

She rolled her eyes, sipped her coffee, then picked up her fork with her free hand.

He scooped up some scrambled eggs onto her plate, then dumped the rest out of the pan onto his. He tossed a couple slices of bacon onto each plate, then retrieved the toast.

With food in her belly, her brain started to function a bit better.

“What’s the plan?”

It was time to put on her Big Girl Panties. She couldn’t afford to fret over things outside her control anymore. “Oriel.”

“What?”

“The demon Oriel. He’s the one who possessed Governor Hicks and murdered Elizabeth Harwood. We need to find him.”

“And how do we do that? Your reporter friend?”

She shook her head, remembering her phone. She’d left it charging on the counter last night. Reaching over, she picked it up, unplugging it from the wall. The blue light flashed, letting her know she had messages. Danny had texted her once at about three in the morning.

Sven’s gone. Fled the state. Lost his trail.

Paige released a long breath, her elbows on either side of her plate, her head bowed. Motherfucker had escaped. Again. She had to catch him. She had to figure out how to—she didn’t even know. To make him a priority? To quit thinking about others over capturing him?

She texted back,
Case is over. You’re done. Stay out of this. Stay safe.

“Bacon,” Tony said. “Eat the bacon. It makes everything better.”

“There’s not a lot of room for humor here, Tony.”

“Nonsense. You live as long as I have and you discover there’s always room for humor.”

Humor at the moment was only irritating her more. “You’re not ancient.”