whiskey witches 01 - whisky witches (10 page)

“In my defense,” Paige said quietly as she reviewed her newly returned memories, “my knowledge of even the existence of that case had been blocked.”

Tru flailed one hand, the corners of his mouth drawn down comically. “Good defense. What was special about the Pilmner case?”

“A man lost his wife and two kids to a drunk driver. They caught the driver, but let him go due to evidence tampering. People had been bought off. He was a high-ranking, government official. The press didn’t even cover his involvement.”

Alma’s wrinkled lips pressed tight, her shoulders hunched.

“Then he figured out how to sacrifice people to summon a demon. It’s very hard to do, but he succeeded somehow. But when he released the demon to do his bidding, the leash broke and the demon raised others who then wreaked havoc all over the city.”

“And you, young lady,” Alma added, “then decided to summon demons to be released on the city in search of those demons.”

“The difference, Grandma,” Paige said, her voice sharp as she daggered the old witch with her gaze, “was that mine were under my control.”

“As they destroyed innocent lives all over town.”

“There’s one thing you can bet.” Paige advance on her grandmother, her jaw clenched. “If a demon went after a person, they weren’t innocent. They were either guilty of something or had the potential to be guilty of something truly horrific.”

Dexx took a step back, one hand out. “Thoughtcrime. You’re talking about thoughtcrime?”

“No. Demons don’t exist only in this time. Hell is . . . it’s the future, the past, the present. They see the damage people can inflict.”

“There were children,” Alma yelled.

“Ignorance doesn’t make someone less evil, Grandma. I’ve seen what ‘children’ can do to people. They’re almost worse because they don’t understand the concept of consequences.”

“I can’t believe I’m listening to this.” Alma covered her ears with her gnarled fingers. “You’re defending them? The demons? Against children.”

“I believe they had a reason for what they did.”

“They’re evil.”

“Evil is in the eye of the beholder. It just means you haven’t seen the true ugliness of humanity yet.”

“And you have?”

A worn sense of knowing filled Paige’s heart. The anger, and all the energy it brought, dissipated. “Yes.”

Tru’s eyes darted between the two Whiskey women. “Okay. So, what do we have in St. Francisville? What’s the great plan here? Why’d they need her wobbly and dysfunctional?”

Paige could always count on Tru to defuse a Whiskey emotion-bomb. After spending the last thirteen years with Alma, Leslie, two kids, Paige and Leah for a short time, and Rachel for an even shorter time, the man was practically a saint.

“Lucius,” Dexx said simply.

Alma sucked in her cheeks, her lips pursed, then dragged her attention to the hunter, allowing herself to be defused. Her demeanor said she wasn’t done yet. “What is he?”

“The guardian to the Gates of Heaven and Hell,” Paige said. “Born a man, given life eternal if he guarded the Gate.”

Alma slid her good eye Paige’s way.

“He was killed here about a hundred years ago. I’m connecting with him. It’s my guess, the killer needs Lucius’ soul to either open or power the key so he can open the gate.”

“To what end?”

“It really depends on who our killer is.”

Tru’s square face filled with overload. “We’re talking about the gate, here right? Like it opens and there’s a legion of demons killing, maiming, pillaging.”

“They’re not pirates,” Paige said.

“No,” Dexx said with mock concern, batting his bright green eyes at Paige. “They’re healers who can’t help themselves but to love and heal and bring happy thoughts to the world of Man.”

“Self-responsibility, asshole. They don’t give a rat’s ass about happy thoughts.”

Dexx flicked his eyebrows. “So, now we have Paige out of commission and not keeping the demon population down. We’ve got a ‘guardian guy’ trapped somewhere around here. We’ve got a key to Hell, and we don’t know if the murderer is trying to free Lucius to use him, or if the murderer is being used by Lucius.”

Alma flattened her lips, her gaze focused inward.

“And, if that weren’t enough,” Dexx continued. “Someone knows about Pea’s gift and set a trap. I’m almost entirely certain. Like ninety-nine percent—no. Like ninety-nine point nine nine percent certain the mandala was charged to trap you, to use you to get Luce out.”

“Yeah,” Paige said quietly. “Good bet.”

The group was silent for a long moment.

Tru clasped his closed hands together. “Well, that’s all very optimistic. Go team. Rahr.”

“A
CTUALLY, I BELIEVE
the killer wants to use Lucius.” Paige didn’t know exactly how she knew that, what clue had tipped her off. Her gut said so. That’s all she had. “The killer’s trying to get Lucius to possess his victims.”

Dexx frowned. “That’s a connection I didn’t make.”

“The X’s over the eyes. Not only could they signify a door, they were also made while the victim was alive.” Paige ran her tongue over her teeth.

“Woo,” Dexx said, rubbing his face with both hands. “Well, I can tell you one thing. We need protections for Paige.”

Paige opened her mouth.

He held up a hand to stop her. “Don’t even. I was there, Pea. Remember? You were downright scary.”

“Before I didn’t even have control over my abilities. I didn’t know what they were or that I had them. I was just hearing voices, seeing strange things, and had no idea what was going on.”

“You do now?”

“Yeah, Dexx. I do. You forget, for years before Grandma decided to take her heavy hand to my brain, I was in complete control.”

Alma grimaced.

“You didn’t understand what I was doing. You thought I had to be out of control in order to allow what I was allowing.” Paige’s heart twisted as she fisted her right hand. “It was easier to think a demon was controlling me. Wasn’t it? Are you really any better than your daughter?”

Alma stumbled back as if Paige struck her in the face.

A twinge of regret rattled through Paige, but her grandmother had deserved that, and a lot more.

“Okay.” Dexx said with forced cheer. “Then show me how your gift works. Are you so certain of your abilities that you wouldn’t want some backup, some help?”

Paige had gotten herself into some pretty bad scrapes during her learning curve, but she had Balnore there.

Balnore, who had sided with her grandmother.

Yeah. Maybe trusting others wasn’t such a good idea. “Fine.”

“What kind of protections are you thinking?” Alma asked.

He bared his forearms. Protective symbols intertwined along his inner forearms. “They work. And I think that’s the only thing that kept Lucius at bay. Come on, now. A mandala as a trap to what, tickle the demon summoner? No. They haven’t succeeded in getting Lucius to possess their victims. They wanted him to possess her.”

Alma looked at him, then turned her gaze to Paige. “What happened?”

Paige glared at Dexx. “I touched the trap spell and Lucius came in. We mind linked. He was able to control me to a small extent.”

The older woman stared at her in disbelief.

“Look, Grandma,” Paige said fiercely. “You made this possible.”

Dexx’s expression was grim. “She was prime material for possession.”

“All right,” Alma said. “So how does your gift work? You never talked about it before. I didn’t even know if you were consciously invoking it.”

Paige snorted. “Why would I? The people I loved were terrified of me.”

Alma flinched.

Paige saw the reaction. Did her grandmother feel regret? Did she wish she’d done something more, supported her better?

It didn’t really matter. She had to stop living in the past. Charge forward. Carefully. “It started pretty early. Visions. Voices.” She chewed the inside of her lip. “I knew that’s the reason Mom left with Nate when I was little. So, I kept it hidden. Bal showed up and gave me a few pointers, stuck around to make sure my gift didn’t make me insane.” She reached up and loosened her hair from her long braid. “Like Great-Grandma.”

Tru folded his arms over his chest, a thick frown furrowed on his brow.

Rubbing his eye, Dexx let out a long breath. “So this, uh, gift. It runs in the family.”

Paige glanced at her grandmother. “Yeah.”

Raising her face to the wind, Alma massaging her lower back. “I don’t think so. We had demons stop by occasionally, but Momma, she—” She stopped.

Paige looked at Dexx. “She killed herself.”

“Like your brother,” Alma said sharply.

Dexx recoiled. Misery smothered his face.

Paige frowned at the other woman in consternation. “What was the point of bringing that up now?”

Tru raised his hands, palms out. “I’m so glad I married the woman that speaks to dead people.”

Everyone was still for a long, cold moment.

Dexx’s sad chuckle broke the silence. He focused on the storm raging overhead. “That’s seriously fucked, dude.”

Tru started chuckling, too.

Paige’s lips twitched and her shoulders shook slightly.

Dexx rubbed his nose. “Okay, so besides keeping the demon population down, what else can you do?”

“Well, I can do all kinds of stuff. I mean, I can tap into the ethereal energies of their plane, and into the earthen energies on this one. I can do a lot.” She didn’t need to brag, though. Her grandmother was already spooked by the idea of her summoning demons.

“Like what?”

What would Alma do if she discovered Paige could open portals to other realms, or create natural disasters? No. Some things had to be kept to herself until she could design a way to ensure her gifts would never be blocked again. “Too much to explain right now.”

“To a mere mortal?”

She shrugged with what she hoped was a cheeky expression.

His quirked lips said he didn’t buy it. “What else?”

“It’s really easy to summon them. I have a direct link to the realm on the other side of the Gate, so calling the one I want is really easy. I don’t have to do nearly the prep work other people need to. I just stand in front of a mirror and call their name. Sometimes, I don’t even have to do that.”

“Mirrors are portals,” Dexx said.

“Exactly,” Paige said. “I can also scry to see all the demons, all the magick users, and anyone who’s soul is bleeding.”

Tru curled his lip, his eyebrows high. “Bleeding?”

“Yeah, man,” Dexx said. “Keep up with the conversation. Demons are healers.”

“Oh, right. Why didn’t I catch that? What about angels?”

“We don’t ask about those, probably because the evil mother is an angel summoner.”

“Oh, shit. Right. Crap. Shit. Shoot. My bad.”

It was hard to be mad at Tru for anything. “Honestly, I haven’t dealt with them, but I’m willing to wager a pretty penny they wouldn’t like me too much.”

Dexx clucked his tongue and pointed at her. “Good bet.”

“Have you scried the area yet?” Alma asked.

“I was a little busy.”

Dexx raised his eyebrows as he shoved his thumbs in his belt loops. “That’s a bit of an understatement.”

“Don’t you need a mirror or something to do that?” Tru asked. “Les does.”

Alma nodded. “Or a bowl of water.”

“Les is a medium,” Paige said. “And you’re an earth witch. I don’t need either.”

Dexx and Alma frowned.

Paige cupped her hands in front of her, closing her eyes. The element wind came to her without hesitation. It teased through her hair, sending it spiraling all around her. Water came next; calm, cool, a hidden turmoil boiling under the cover of silence. Slow, sleepy earth yawned, stretching into her command, filling her with a distant nurture, giving her the soul nutrition only it could provide. The sky flashed above her as she called fire. It leapt at her in a crazy, spectral dance of lancing sky-flame. The element seeped through every corner of her being, filling her with energy, burning life back into her rather heavy, deadened heart.

Feeling crazed with the energy at her command, she concentrated on her cupped hands.

Within the confines of her palms, a globe formed. On the bottom lay a map made of points interconnected with lines. In her mind’s eye, she felt each point, knew their true names. Red, green, yellow and blue dots sprinkled the map.

She flattened her hands, bringing them to the edge of the sphere. She widened it and zoomed in on their area. “Here.” She pointed to a particularly red spot without actually touching the ball of magick. “Can you see? The red dots are demons. The blues are clairvoyants and witches. Green, healers. Yellow, generators.”

“What’s a generator?”

“Someone capable of creating magick within them without having to draw from outside themselves.”

“What about that purple one?” Dexx asked, pointing with his chin, his hands tucked behind his back. .

“That’s me. Now watch.” She brought her hand to the bottom and punctured the sphere with her fingernail. She touched one of the blue dots. It grew in size until Alma’s face filled the magick half-globe.

“Huh,” Alma said as her face disappeared from the globe. “Are there usually so many demons or magically inclined people in one spot? Or am I reading this wrong?”