Paige pretended to pay attention to her shoes.
Dexx opened his palms.
Alma raised her eyebrows inquiringly, then chucked her chin in Paige’s direction.
Anger flashed across his features. He jabbed a finger toward Paige while the other hand went to his head. He shrugged, his eyes demanding.
Alma glared at him for a long, silent moment before the bite dropped out of her gaze. She turned to Paige. “How are you doing, Nut?”
Hurt flashed in Paige’s chest as she headed for the door without a word to the woman.
They all trooped out of the inn toward the lake. Trees sheltered them from the wind that tossed the branches. The grass was full and lush beneath their feet. The afternoon sun hid behind a dark storm. The chopped water of the lake lapped against the sandy shore with little slurping sounds. Paige led them toward the tree-line. No insects, no birds. Just them and the wind.
“Looks like it’s about to rain,” Alma said, keeping pace with Paige.
She wasn’t sure what to answer, or even if she wanted to. The sharp edge had been removed with time, but that didn’t mean everything was okay. It wasn’t. If she had to work with her grandmother, she would and she could, but chit-chat? A heart-to-heart? She wasn’t ready for that yet.
“Our situation is more serious than a simple murder investigation.” Dexx kicked a rock. “And another thought hit me as I read the police files yesterday. How much of what happened three years ago was fate, and how much of it was careful maneuvering?”
Alma shot him a sharp look. “Maneuvering for what?”
He shoved his fists in his pockets. “To get her out of commission.”
“Explain.”
“It’s no secret. Rachel had no case. She shouldn’t have been able to take Leah in the first place. She wasn’t in the same state. She had no motive, no proof.”
Tru’s pale eyebrows shot up. “So you’re saying Rachel’s a bitch because some demon made her do it? No-no. That woman is Satan.”
Paige ran her fingernails along her greasy scalp. She needed a shower. “He might take offense to that.”
“Oh my god.” Tru held his hands out to her, his knees bent. “You would know. You would totally know. Can you ask him? You know, as a personal favor to me, because I could use that as ammunition the next time that crazy, psychotic bitch decided to tear down my wife.”
Paige bit both her lips. As much as her heart twinged at the thought of Leslie being torn down by that woman, it also felt a bit nice to know she wasn’t alone.
Dexx meandered to a tree and plucked idly at the rough bark. “Think about it. What happened without Paige to watch over the demon population, to keep them in check? They could have invested themselves into politics, into religion, into the press.”
“You could start a website with that.” Tru kicked off his flip-flops and toed the sand. “No. Wait. I’m pretty sure there are already about a dozen of them. Did you drink the Kool-aid?”
“Balnore warned us Leah could be used against her. We just didn’t think they’d use her own family to do it.”
Paige didn’t think of Rachel as family. She only saw her as the one who had abandoned her then took her only child.
Alma’s eyes narrowed. “Balnore’s here?”
Paige nodded. “Yes.”
“You’re talking to demons,” Alma said. Her voice inched toward accusation.
“He’s a demon that was kicked out of Hell,” Dexx said, his pointer finger raised.
Tru’s expression widened in disbelief. “No way.”
Dexx opened his arms and shrugged an affirmative.
Tru threw his head back, laughing. “That’s rich. How do you get kicked out of Hell?”
Paige kept her gaze on her grandmother, assessing how the older woman would react to the knowledge she was practicing again.
“I have so gotta meet this guy,” Tru said with a grin. “There’s a demon that might not scare the piss out of me. I’m excited!”
Alma planted her feet, squaring off with Dexx. “Do you really think there’s a greater plan here than just a few murders?”
“Yes. I do. What if someone found out about her gift three years ago? Too many things happened at the same time. Rachel? The Pilmner case? And am I the only one who’s realized the killer here in St. Francisville is using the same symbols from that case?”
“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.”
“ACTUALLY, 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 h
is 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?”
“I’ve never seen so many in one place before.”
“Is anyone besides me seeing a problem here?” Dexx bit his bottom lip. “Just asking.”
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