whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick

by blooding, s m

  “Yeah. Anyway, from what I can read, our ancestors were terrified of the paranormals.”

  Paige frowned. “Terrified? I’ve met a vampire and several shifters, and none of them really scared me. They’re all pretty lame, I guess you could say.” She glanced at Tony to see if he heard her.

  He continued his conversation with Dexx and didn’t even flinch.

  Nope. She was good.

  “Well, how ever they are now, that’s not how our ancestors saw them. Apparently, we enslaved them.”

  Paige moved around Tony and opened Jackie’s passenger door. “Dexx, come on.”

  Tony slapped Dexx’s shoulder. “Keep it steady.”

  “Yeah, man. You, too.” Dexx walked around Jackie’s hood.

  Paige closed her door and clicked on her lap belt. Jackie had been built before the age of seatbelts, and Dexx hadn’t felt the need to defile her by installing one. Oh, rebels. They were so darned cute. Now, as long as she didn’t die… “Is there anything saying why we enslaved them, though?”

  Leslie paused. Paige imagined her sister shaking her head. “Not really, unless it’s all this stuff in the other language.”

  “Do you even know what language it is?”

  “Nope.” Leslie’s tone sounded chipper as a thick tome slammed shut. “But I see a field trip in my near future. So, I’m excited.”

  Paige chuckled. “All right. Well, keep me informed and stay safe.”

  “Always. Love you, baby sister.”

  “Oh, hey! Before you go!”

  Leslie paused, then said, “Yeah?”

  Paige narrowed her eyes at the dashboard. “Do you know where Grandma’s old journals are?”

  “Um, which one?”

  “Great Grandma. The demon summoner?”

  “Oh. Yeah, um, I think they’re somewhere in the attic. Why?”

  “Because I have a demon mark that showed up on a body two days ago and I need to know who it is. If I know who it is, I might stand a better chance of finding him.”

  “But you can’t,” Leslie said, her tone rising in pitch. “You can’t.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t mean that the demons just disappear. They’re here, Les, and I have to fix that. It’s still my responsibility.”

  Leslie sighed. “Okay. Fine. I’ll look. What does the mark look like?”

  “A four-tiered candelabra.”

  “Like a full candelabra?”

  Paige frowned. “Like a brand that’s been burned into the skin and it’s about the size of a quarter.”

  “Oh. Okay. Gotta go.”

  “Sure. Make sure Tru’s doing all the heavy lifting.”

  “This is my fourth baby, sweetheart. Trust me,” Leslie said, her tone frank, “my husband knows how to lift things for me.”

  “Good.” Paige chuckled. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” She hung up.

  The stranger her world became, the more comfortable she was with it. Did that say something about her. Or the world she now existed in?

  Tony had told them to go to the Nederland police station, which looked like a big log cabin. Rustic, but homey. It didn’t appear as oppressive as the brick and mortar, or concrete stations Paige was accustomed to.

  Inside was nicer, as well. Still had that small town homey feeling. She went to the first desk and peeled her business jacket aside to reveal her badge to the older man sitting there. “We’re looking for Sheriff Karl.”

  A short woman in a black police uniform walked through the door in the rear of the room. Her dark hair was pulled back in a tight bun. She smiled and offered her hand as she walked forward. “You must be Detective Whiskey.”

  “Sheriff Karl.” Paige took the other woman’s hand, exchanging a firm shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. This is Dexx Colt. He’s assisting my partner and I on the case.”

  Dexx took the woman’s hand next. “And I don’t call people by their last names if I don’t have to.”

  “I prefer being called Karl or Sheriff.”

  “A girl named Karl.” Dexx widened his eyes, his lips smashed. “I like it. I guess.”

  “Like a boy named Sue. Makes us tougher.” Karl chuckled and led them to her office. “Tony said you knew about our society and that you’re friendly.”

  “I have learned a lot in the past couple of days. And you’re okay with me being a witch?”

  “I talked to Sam. The world’s changed, anyway. It’s not the same as it was when the treaty was created. If you’re good, I’m good. Close the door.” She sat down behind the desk. “Kevin will be here shortly. I wanted the doctor to check him out, just to be sure nothing strange was going on.”

  Paige took one of the other two chairs. Just enough cushioning to ensure a thirty-minute conversation wouldn’t be too uncomfortable. “Did he say where he was being held?”

  Karl shook her head. “Not really. He says he doesn’t remember much.” She shrugged. “So, having a witch might not be such a bad thing on this case.”

  Narrowing her eyes, Paige settled back in her chair. “Why?”

  Dexx took the seat next to her. “You can help him remember?” He wiggled his fingers. “Honestly, it’s like talking to a newb sometimes.”

  Karl smiled, her brow furrowing.

  Paige raised her shoulders. “Your stories might have you believing we’re all about manipulation, but I don’t know how to do that.”

  “Hmm.” Karl rapped her knuckle against the desk.

  Paige hadn’t openly practiced magick. Ever.

  This felt weird. Like being naked. In public.

  Paige rubbed the scabs on her chest hiding beneath her tank top under her button-up shirt. They didn’t itch. They didn’t burn, but the door whispered, reminding her it was there. “I’m assuming you pulled evidence from his clothes?”

  Karl nodded. “We have someone here who does lab work for us.”

  “Easier that way.”

  “Exactly. She should have something by end of day.”

  “That is quick.” Paige raised her eyebrows. “I’m a bit jealous.”

  “That’s what happens when you live in a secret paranormal community,” Karl said with a smile.

  “Where do I sign up?”

  Karl chuckled.

  Probably the nicest brush-off Paige was likely to receive.

  “The laws still apply to us. I don’t let anyone off easy, but we take care of our own, too.”

  “So,” Dexx said, resting his elbows on his knees, “what are you?”

  “Not telling.”

  He frowned with an exaggerated hurt-face and sat back in his chair. “Fine. I’m not telling you what I am either.”

  She smiled, turning her attention to Paige. “So, I take it we were a surprise to you.”

  “You have no idea,” Paige said, a weight lifting when she admitted it out loud. “I had thought we had witches and demons and angels, some ghosts, but that was it. But this? Vampires? Shapeshifters?”

  “And that’s only the beginning. There are all sorts of other paranormals out there.”

  “Any I should be worried about?”

  “Not here.”

  “Hey, Jennifer,” a man said, entering the office, a teen-aged boy in tow.

  Dexx hooked his thumb toward the sheriff and mouthed to Paige, “Jennifer.”

  She didn’t understand his thing about first names.

  The newcomer stepped inside. “Thought I’d bring your stray back.”

  Karl raised her chin with a tight smile. “Anything we should be aware of, John?”

  He nodded with a tipping of his head. “There’s an implant. I removed it and gave it to Alison to run tests on. But I didn’t notice anything else. He’s well-fed. No bruises. No abrasions. Wherever he was, he was taken care of.”

  “I can’t tell if that makes me feel comforted.” Karl quirked a smile at the kid. “Hey, Kevin.” She gestured at Dexx to move. “Why don’t you take a seat?”

  Dexx leapt out of the chair
. “Here ya go, man.”

  Kevin was a gangly young man who moved like a Great Dane puppy, all height and no grace. His dark brown hair was on the long side, giving him the appearance of a skater, maybe. He tugged on his dark t-shirt, glancing at Paige with a frown.

  “I’m Detective Paige Whiskey. I’m assisting from Denver.”

  His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Okay.”

  Karl folded her fingers on top of her desk. “How are you feeling?”

  He shrugged with one shoulder, his lips quirked. “Fine, I guess.”

  “Do you have any idea where you’ve been for the past few weeks?”

  He expelled a breath that sounded like it could have been a “yeah,” but after another shrug and a flop of his hand, he shook his head. “Nah. No.”

  Paige glanced at Karl.

  She raised an eyebrow, lifting one shoulder minutely.

  Time to see if Paige could actually do anything to help. She switched on her witch vision and studied his soul.

  Cold blue with sparks of white. Another shape formed at his head. A muzzle. Round ears at the top of a large head.

  “You’re a bear.” Though, what kind? She didn’t know. She’d never studied animals before. Big. Tall. Bear.

  Kevin’s dark eyes widened in alarm. “Jennifer?”

  “She’s here to help.” Karl raised a pink soul-hand, a bright rose color swirling over her heart. Sparks of pink amber shot from her toward Kevin.

  Those sparks enveloped his soul, blending with his cool blue and created a blazing lavender. Surprisingly, the lavender stayed.

  Interesting. Paige took in a deep breath. “I’m just going to ask you a few questions. All you have to do is answer them the best you can. Okay?”

  His bear’s head nodded before his human head did.

  Very interesting. “Is there any way for us to speak to your bear?”

  The bear’s head tipped, and the eyes flared a bright, pale blue as it studied her.

  “No.” Kevin’s voice was clipped. “It doesn’t speak.”

  Raising its head, the bear’s bright eyes met Paige’s.

  She met its gaze and nodded deeply, maintaining eye contact. “Do you remember anything at all of the time you were away?”

  “No.”

  The bear straightened, his head rising higher.

  Paige frowned. “Was it dark?”

  “I just told you. I don’t know.”

  The bear shook its head.

  “Could you hear anything?”

  “Look, Detective, I appreciate you’re just trying to do your job—”

  The bear tipped its head and nodded hesitantly.

  “—but I’m not going to be able to tell you anything.”

  She was talking to the wrong person. Running her tongue along her teeth, she thought about how to approach this interrogation differently. “How do I talk to you?”

  “You’re doing it.” Kevin’s voice rose in pitch. “Jennifer?”

  “Not you, Kevin,” Paige said, keeping her voice calm as the lavender dispersed to blue again. “I need to speak to your spirit animal.”

  “You can’t.”

  “I can see him and it appears as though he has information to provide.”

  Several spikes of white light flared from Kevin’s soul.

  Whoa. “Calm would be better.”

  “I don’t know what you want.” His voice rose a half octave.

  Paige held out her hands, palm down. “He’s not something to be scared of.”

  “I will hurt people if he comes out.”

  The bear’s eyes grew smaller as he shrank, a feeling of shame and hurt surging toward her.

  Paige narrowed her eyes. “Okay. Are you having a hard time bonding to you your spirit animal?”

  “It’s too strong,” Kevin moaned. “Please.”

  “He doesn’t look as though he wants to hurt you.”

  “I don’t know what you see, but he’s trying to take over.”

  The bear shrank in what appeared to be even more shame, but the only thing she felt was frustration and disappointment.

  What if she’d been the animal spirit and she’d chosen Kevin? What if she’d deemed him worthy of being a bear? How would she react if Kevin treated her this way?

  About the same as when Alma had treated her similarly. Alma had been afraid of Paige’s gift, so she’d sealed away. Safe. Or so Alma had thought.

  It hurt, though, being put away, not being trusted.

  The bear’s head rose above Kevin’s and a feeling of trust-filled understanding trickled toward her.

  “That’s not what he’s trying to do.” She couldn’t allow her own frustration to interfere with the line of questioning, though. Kevin, for whatever reason, was emotionally fragile. That happened. Fact of life. She needed to maintain her cool. “Kevin, when was the last time you tried talking to him?”

  “He hurt someone.”

  Paige glanced around the room, but only saw soul fires of those sitting around her. Nothing flared. “I don’t think he’s going to hurt anyone here.”

  “You don’t understand.” Kevin bent at the waist, grabbing his head. “You removed the chip. You removed the chip!”

  Sheriff Karl rose and walked over to Kevin, her pink and rose colored soul shooting sparks of comfort. The head of a fox peeked out, focused on the bear.

  Kevin deflected them this time, his soul rejecting her pink and sending it into the office.

  With no wards to contain the flares, she wasn’t sure how the people outside the office would react. “Okay, okay, okay!” Paige pushed out of her chair and onto the floor at Kevin’s feet, holding her hand out to Sheriff Karl to stop.

  Karl’s fox tipped her head to the side as if curious.

  “Let me try something, okay? Kevin, just be calm.”

  Kevin continued to rock and moan.

  The bear, however, raised his head.

  Paige knew that bears were generally thought to be associated with the earth, but this bear looked and felt more like water. Cold water.

  Unfortunately, that was the one element she was the weakest in. Not to say that she couldn’t call to it, but each element had nuances. She reached inside of herself and whispered to the element, calling for the cleansing attributes, the numbing aspects of it.

  The pull of the full moon thrummed, singing to her like a lost lover. Close. So close. It gave her more energy than she’d anticipated. Her hands shook as she tried to contain it.

  Water rose from a cup on Karl’s desk.

  The plant on the beige metal filing drawers shivered.

  Karl’s gaze bloomed a blazing fuchsia, but her fox seemed unconcerned.

  Paige shivered. Gently. Gently. “Bear?” She swallowed hard and focused on the element of the spirit animal. “We could really use your help.”

  Kevin’s ice blue soul color melted away to something a bit more teal and deep blue, like deep water Paige had only in seen pictures. Kevin’s voice deepened as he straightened, his shoulders back, his head held high. The bear’s head merged fully with Kevin’s.

  Only in witch vision? She couldn’t tell. It would be really neat if she could somehow use half-witch vision and half-real vision.

  “Hello, witch,” the bear said. “You seek assistance.”

  “I do. Do you wish anyone in this room harm?”

  “Of course not,” the bear said, his voice thick. “But then you knew that, witch.”

  “I did. Thank you.” She scooped herself back into her seat. “Are you and your human having a hard time bonding?”

  “We are,” the bear said simply.

  Her witch vision wasn’t telling her much, so she switched to regular. But something happened in between. For one brief moment, she was able to see both the teenaged boy and the bear’s face. She narrowed her eyes and concentrated, trying to figure out what she’d done.

  “Ah, witch. There. I see you now.”

  Paige blinked. The bear’s face appeared as if it were a phy
sical projection over Kevin’s face. “Hello.”

  The bear nodded. “Hello.”

  Karl’s brown eyes were wide as she glanced at Paige, but the pink soul eyes of her fox remained calm.

  Cool. Shifter vision. That’s what she was going to call this. “Okay. You said you and your human were having a hard time bonding. How and why?”

  The bear sighed. “Sometimes when we choose a human to bond to, they are not as prepared as we had thought.”

  “How do you choose your human?”

  The bear shook his head. “That is not something we will discuss.”

  Paige ducked her head with a smile. “I had to try. My theory is that whoever took you two chose you because you are not bonding well.”

  “I would agree with that.” The bear pressed the palms of Kevin’s hands together.

  “Can you give us any details that might help us with our investigation? There were others taken. Were any of them with you?”

  “There were many with us. Some, Kevin knew, others he did not.”

  “Other packs?”

  The bear gestured to his chest. A symbol swam to the top of his chest, right over his heart. It looked like a fuller crescent moon, with shoots of fire coming off of it.

  Dumbass. Those weren’t shoots of fire. Those were bear claws. “Is that the symbol of your pack?”

  The bear nodded.

  “There was a symbol on Elizabeth Harwood’s chest. It appeared—” She didn’t know how to say it politely.

  “After the soul would have exited the body,” the bear finished for her.

  “Wouldn’t the soul have left the body much sooner? It didn’t appear—” The only words she could think of were, “until she’d been in the morgue for several hours,” but that was considered rude to the civilian population. “—for several hours.”

  “Sometimes,” the bear said slowly, his voice low, “the animal spirit stays in the body, trying to heal it.”

  Interesting.

  “Kevin,” Karl said, “should you be telling her this?”

  “See for yourself, Fox. Witch, turn your vision to her.”

  Paige didn’t know exactly what was going on, but she did as he instructed and looked at the sheriff.

  Her fox head sank down to morph more fully with Karl’s face. While Karl’s mouth rounded, the fox’s muzzle gaped. An explosion of awe tumbled toward Paige.