As if on cue, the electricity went out.
Right. No communication. Power was gone.
And now they had no way to open doors to get supplies.
The war had truly begun.
21
Merry and Elder Yad rose to leave. “I’ll have a location for you shortly.” Merry held her hand out for the knife.
For her? What was she supposed to do? She wanted to stab the knife in the blood witch’s heart.
Of course. She had to find a way to open a door.
She had herself and Leah, but neither of them were exceptionally good at that magick yet. Granted, she knew they were still Plan A, but she needed to find a good Plan B.
Just as soon as she wrangled the kids.
Cyn and her portal to the spirit animal plane might be the Plan B they needed, but Paige was going to have to talk to her about how possible it was to use it this way. The portal Cyn had led to one location; the library and the museum of magickally dangerous objects hidden in the spirit animal realm. It was kind of like their own Warehouse 13, only less cool because the entrance was a closet door and they didn’t have a magick football.
Leah wasn’t leaving her side.
Roxxie had disappeared somewhere, hopefully looking for a reason for Bobby’s rapid growth, so Paige decided to just keep Bobby with her.
Leslie and Nick and Mark and the entire pack were busy doing their things, so Paige’s kids were with her. Paige gave her siblings the heads up on what was going on and told them to keep their kids close.
Ember and Rai were awake finally and shifting into as many animals as they could, as if sleeping had cheated them on all their fun and they were making up for it. It was almost like a contest between them now.
On the rare occasion they chose human, Paige got to see their own growth. They were now the size of toddlers, standing on their own.
And Bobby had grown more just since earlier that morning.
That couldn’t be good, right?
Okay. This was the red alert. The war could wait. She needed to handle this right now. Her babies were in trouble.
She piled all her kids into her car, telling the twins they needed to be human while she drove. No shifting in the car. They both gave her sad baby faces in every shape they could. They even managed to make a sad baby snake face, which she hadn’t thought was possible.
However, Rai and Ember were now to the point where she had to readjust the belts on their car seats. Like, she had to take them out of the slots in the back and raise them up. How’d they grown this fast?
This was taking forever, but Leah helped it go a bit faster. There really wasn’t room in a standard backseat for three baby seats. But if she slammed the door real hard and leaned against the door, Paige could just make it happen.
Paige finally managed to strap everyone into their respective seats, and Leah was getting herself buckled.
Paige really appreciated older kids who could take care of themselves.
Roxxie appeared beside her just as she was about to slide into the driver’s seat of the car.
Roxxie didn’t look great. “What’s wrong?” Paige got out and closed the door, catching Roxxie.
The angel closed her eyes and staggered a little. “The—it’s just really hard to travel this way.”
“Okay. Then maybe rethink that. Like, walk like a human for a bit.” Which… Paige looked in the car. There was no way she could squish one more human into her car. Well, she could. But it would be like riding in a sardine can on wheels.
Roxxie leaned against the car, looking beyond exhausted. Her eyes were sunk in, as were her cheeks.
Yeah. Okay. Paige needed to hear what Roxxie had to say, but she also needed to talk to Cyn and she might also need to talk to Merry. She just didn’t know. So, Paige opened the car door, assessing the kid situation. “Okay. We need to get rid of one car seat. So, Rai or Ember, I need you to shift into something small.”
Rai responded first, shifting into a leopard kitten.
But Ember wasn’t to be outdone. He shifted into a baby bird.
“No birds!” Paige opened the back door and took out Ember’s car seat, popping the trunk to shove it inside.
Roxxie raised one hand and nearly fell over. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not.” With Ember’s seat in the trunk—that had been a lot of time wasted on readjusting their belts if she wasn’t even going to use them—Paige went to the other passenger door. “Leah, you’re in the back.”
The girl grumbled but got out of the front passenger seat and wedged herself between the door and Bobby’s car seat.
Rai had shifted into a ferret.
Ember shifted into a rat.
Rai then shifted into a small mouse.
Ember just disappeared.
Paige rolled her eyes and took the other car seat out, undoing the belt that held Bobby’s seat, then put it in the actual seat, giving Leah more room.
Bobby glared the entire time.
Her toddler wasn’t a toddler anymore. He was a small kid now. Geez. That should scare the crap out of her, and it did. A little. But not nearly as much as it made her feel relieved. She was going to be fighting yet another battle, a war, really. She didn’t need to be saddled with tiny tots.
Roxxie maneuvered around the hood of the car to get herself into the front passenger seat.
With everyone belted in except for her two wild children, who were now both insects of some kind, Paige put the car in motion—with all the windows closed because insects could get sucked out— and headed toward Cyn’s house. “You’ve gotta change the way you live and interact, Rox. You’re not a full-fledged angel anymore.”
“I know. I just…” She trailed off, gripping the dashboard, her fingertips going white. “I sometimes forget.”
Paige sighed deeply. “Tell me you at least put yourself through this for a reason?”
Roxxie glanced over her shoulder. “Honestly, no. There’s no precedent.”
“Do you think it has something to do with the gates?”
Roxxie nodded. “But how? I don’t know. I had gone to our library—”
“I’m taking you to another one.”
The angel grunted. “—thinking that there might be some connection to the gates, but there’s no information on them. At all.”
Hmm. Because it wasn’t something that needed to be shared or written down? Or because someone was hiding it? “You’re losing power.”
“And he’s gaining it.” Roxxie looked over her shoulder. “His height isn’t the only thing he’s getting.”
“What?”
Roxxie nodded. “I don’t know why. Prophets aren’t usually powerful. They don’t usually need it, but there were a few who did. Those eras did not end well.”
“What do you mean? Like Biblical bad?”
Roxxie nodded, her eyebrows raised.
“Does this have anything to do with the twins?” Paige didn’t meet with a lot of traffic as she crossed town to get to Cyn’s house. Most people understood that, without gas, driving was a bad idea. There were, however, a lot of people on bicycles. “There was a reason the angels wanted the twins dead. Do you know why?”
Roxxie just lifted two tired shoulders. “I just know they’re scared.”
“Great. But there aren’t a lot of angels here.” So, it was unlikely she’d have a two-front war. Maybe. Hopefully.
“No. Most of the angels who had been here are gone. They’re in Heaven. Staying here is a drain to our systems.”
That didn’t seem to be the case for the demons. “That’s good for us.” Except—Paige just had another thing whack her in her head. A thought. A memory. A fact she shouldn’t have misplaced. “You’re the anchor to the Heaven gate. Is that draining you?”
“If anything, it’s making me better. I think?” Roxxie gave her a pained smile. “You should see the other angels.”
Not all the other angels. She’d been attacked by one at the White House who’d see
med pretty okay. “Okay. Well, um.” If angels weren’t hunting Bobby, then the threat level was down. “Do you think Bobby will be okay?”
“I hope so? We just have to watch.”
Paige pulled up in front of Cyn’s house. “Well, then, Bobby isn’t the main priority for you now. You are. So, take care of you.”
“I’ll take care of me and keep looking for information on him.”
Paige smiled her thanks, shut off the car, and turned her attention to the twins. “Be something big enough that I can see you.”
Ember and Rai shifted into baby elephants, which would have been cute except they were big and they squished Leah and Bobby.
Bobby zapped them both with some golden angel light.
Ember released an elephant trumpet that turned into a bear roar.
Rai screeched as an owl and flew out Paige’s door.
Being a bear was still a bad idea because the kid was getting big.
Leah scolded him and she shoved Bobby out of the car to save his life from suffocation by baby bear fur.
Paige just got out and let them deal with themselves and turned toward the small mansion.
Cyn stepped out of the door, one hand on her hip, her blue eyes narrowed. Her streak of blue hair was brighter than it had been the last time Paige had seen it. Which was good. Someone had to have time for that.
As much as Paige wanted to do the fantasy hair colors because they really did look neat, they were a lot of work, too. She’d be boring brown for a while longer. “Hey. I’d love to small talk with you, but, first, I suck at it and, second, I just don’t have time.”
Cyn clamped her teeth shut and crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you need?”
Paige glanced over at the rather large tree that dominated the front lawn. Cyn’s parents had sacrificed their bodies to become the grounding stone for the base of that tree, their bodies permanently entwined in the tree’s heart. They were on the other side of the portal, their souls inhabiting the library. Paige didn’t understand all the particulars, but they weren’t dead. That’s what she really understood. “We need to see if we can use the Banga Boomy to get people from one town to another.”
“The Vaada Bhoomi,” Cyn corrected with a shake of her head. “It doesn’t work like that.”
Paige’d been afraid of that. “Well, I need to see if maybe there’s something in your museum of fantastical things that might be able to help.” She held up a hand to stall whatever was about to come out of Cyn’s mouth. That woman could put up more roadblocks of what-if’s and why-nots than Paige had ever seen. “We’ve got paras trapped all over the damned U.S. and we need to get them relocated to somewhere else that’s safe.”
Lynx stepped out, looking good. He’d been a cat just a few weeks earlier. He’d been trapped in the Vaada Bhoomi as Bastet’s temple cat for over two hundred years. Or two thousand. Something like that. A really long time. He’d been trapped as a temple cat for a really long time, but he was back to human and mated to Cyn and he looked good. Even with his cat ears. “We’ll do what we can.”
“Great. Thank you.” Paige should probably stay and talk a little more. She got the feeling that Cyn was a person who appreciated being talked to. An extrovert. Paige didn’t have time for that. One day, hopefully, the two of them could sit down and get to know one another. Now wasn’t that time.
“While they’re at it,” Paige said softly, “could your mom look to see if there’s some reason my kids are growing so fast?”
Cyn looked confused.
“I just need to know if they’re going to be okay.”
“Yeah.” Cyn didn’t look confident.
But Paige’d done what she could for the moment. It wasn’t like she could take the three kids to the doctor. They wouldn’t know what they were looking at.
Time to deal with the impending war. She really had to get the Blackmans back. Without them, Troutdale, and everyone else, were doomed.
She got back in the car and shouted, “Let me know what you find out.”
Cyn glared.
Lynx waved.
The kids piled in with screams and screeches.
Paige didn’t wait for the seatbelt check this time. Next stop, Merry’s.
Before she left, though, she shot Leslie a text. Grab Mandy and/or Ty and meet me at Merry’s. Problem. Need [bomb emojo].
The Eastwood “house” was even more of a mansion than Cyn’s family home. But Paige was becoming a frequent flyer now, kinda. She rang the doorbell and opened the door, letting herself in. Rai and Ember were now puppies, making a bunch of noise.
Bobby chased after them but not in a toddler way. It was more of a younger Tyler way, if that made any sense. He was trying to get them to calm down.
“Guys,” Paige barked in her best Mom voice, letting her alpha will slip through a little. “Cut it out.” There were things more valuable than Paige and all of her kids combined, even if they were sold on the slave market.
Ollie appeared from one of the rooms to Paige’s right with a warm smile. “Hey, sis.”
This family line stuff was for the birds. They shared the same father, a Blackman, while Paige had married Ollie’s brother. Ollie was only related to Leah through Merry. Weirdest family tree ever, and it made Paige feel more than a little redneck, but…Paige liked Ollie. For an Eastwood blood witch, he was pretty decent.
Wait. He was an Eastwood blood witch with Blackman door magick. He might be helpful. “Hey, brother.”
He frowned at her, pulling back a little as he came in for a hug. “You’re planning to use me.”
She hugged Ollie back. “You’re damned straight.”
“Any word on Dexx?” Ollie muttered into her hair.
Paige shook her head and took a step back, her darker emotions pushed into a box sealed so tight her heart didn’t even twinge at the sound of his name. “How are you with door magick?”
“Not that again.” Ollie groaned as he led the way back. “Eldora hasn’t let up on me since all of this blew up, so I’ve practiced a little.”
“Well, good, because you, me, and half-pint are the A Game.”
He tipped his head giving her a greeeeaaaat look and opened a door. “We have a location.”
The room he led her into was obviously a magick work room but of the blood witch kind. There were a lot of darker witch elements like skulls and ravens that were probably real taxidermized ravens and a few other animals that were probably also taxidermized. If that wasn’t a real word, Paige was going to make it one.
Paige refused to ask about the elements here. She didn’t want to question them. She had to make alliances, and that meant accepting them.
Besides that, she had to acknowledge just how helpful Merry had been. Paige wouldn’t have made it this far without her. So, it might be time to put her judgements aside.
There were about a dozen other witches in the room, lining the walls, standing with their hands folded in front of them, wearing dark robes that obscured their faces and bodies.
Merry stood at the table in the middle of the room. She raised an eyebrow at the kids, then looked at Paige again. “So, we’re taking kids?”
Leslie and Mandy walked in.
Paige met Leslie’s gaze, grateful she’d shown up. “You have your strengths. We have ours.”
Leslie released a slight growl as she stalked past Paige and stepped up to the table. “Where are we going?”
Merry shook her head. “Portland. If you have the ability to open a door.”
Right. Paige glanced at Leah and Ollie.
If this didn’t work, they’d have to go with Plan B, and Cyn had already said it wouldn’t happen.
Leah raised her chin and stepped up to the table, meeting Paige’s gaze. She nodded once.
Ollie joined them, with a shake of his head and an expression that said he thought this was a bad idea.
Great. Well, if they were going to be learning on the fly, they’d better get started. They needed the Blackwood
witches. The paranormal world was counting on them not to fail.
So, that’s exactly what they weren’t going to do. Fail.
22
The first thing Paige needed to do was to figure out how to lock in on the location Merry and her witches provided. It was one thing to see it on the map. It was a whole different animal to reach out with that pinpoint of information and open a doorway to it. Her mind, heart, soul, and rooted body had to comprehend what that pinpoint meant magickally.
Location spells with Leslie had helped her learn bare essentials. She wished for a moment that she’d had a little more time, like years, with Eldora honing this particular gift. Procrastinating, it turned out, was a terrible idea.
Leah didn’t seem to be as bothered by the lack of training. Youth had advantages. She stepped up to the table, took a look at the map, and oriented herself with the sun and the cardinal directions. She closed her eyes and went to work. Her magick spun away in black wispy smoke tendrils.
Huh. What if her witch hands were actually doors? What if she wasn’t just reaching out with her magick? What if she also was opening doors to other dimensions at the same time she called them up?
Ollie was working through his magick at the same time, a frown of concentration on his face. His magick was a dark red that was, frankly, quite beautiful to look at.
Paige reached inside and touched on her own magick. It felt like an old and treasured friend. She wouldn’t say it had a personality. Not exactly. But it had a life. It wasn’t some inanimate object like a blanket or a favorite sweatshirt. It was an uncoiled, wild thing that seemed to understand her in ways no one else did or could.
She pulled up her hands, watching as the inky black energy extended from her. She could make those arms as long as she needed. She could make her hands as big as was necessary and could lift things her body could not.
Her magick turned to her with a hint of question, as if that living thing inside of her was trying to have a conversation with her.
So, she focused the question toward her magick without using words. Words were thought-limiters that animals and elementals didn’t understand. Every other creature on the planet spoke in broader concepts and thought forms instead of forcing those broad-stroke thoughts into tiny boxes of “understanding.” She focused her question in visions and emotions and thoughts.
Whiskey Storm (Whiskey Witches Midnight Rising Book 1) Page 20