“Only that after it was signed, they weren’t allowed to speak to one another.”
Paige narrowed her eyes at the map wall. A treaty where witches and paranormals weren’t allowed to speak to one another? Was that the reason Sven brought her there? Because he wanted to start another witch versus paranormal war?
Leslie’s voice dropped to just above a whisper. “Are they dangerous?”
Paige reminded herself that she’d just gone through this emotional rollercoaster the day before. And she wasn’t pregnant. “No.”
“Well, then…” Leslie paused. “I’ll check around our area and see if there’s any paranormals here.”
“Why?”
“Things are heatin’ up, politically I mean. It’s becoming less safe. Might be better to travel in numbers.”
That was the second time the political stability of her home state was brought up. “Do you feel you need to move?”
“This is our home, Paige,” Leslie nearly shouted. “We’ve been here for over a hundred years. We’re not moving just because some dumb assholes are tryin’ to take away our rights to be here.”
“Okay. Okay.” Leslie had a volatile temper under normal conditions.
“What are you doing tonight?”
Out of the blue. “Um, I don’t know. Drinking wine.” Getting hammered. “Going to bed.” Waiting out the power of the moon within the comforts of her wards. She didn’t want to see what kinds of spells she could cast. Not yet. This much power and she still had that damned demon door inside her. Yeah. No.
“You’re not going to draw down the moon?”
When had she last drawn down the moon?
When she’d been living with Alma and Leslie. Leah had been four. Mandy had been eight and ready to join in the festivities. Tyler hadn’t discovered his voice yet. It had been lovely; the connection to the All Mother, the protective pull.
“Probably not this time. There’s another super moon coming in the fall. I might then.”
“Hmm. Well.”
Change of subject. “How’s the baby?”
“He got real quiet.” So did Leslie. “So, he’ll be here soon. You’re comin’, right? Next week?”
Paige should probably put in a vacation request, but…she’d just come back from a week long investigation in Louisiana. “I’ll put in the request, but, at the end of the day, my boss has to give the okay.”
“Right. So, I’ll see you next week.”
Why Leslie seemed to think Paige had that much sway was beyond her. Her boss hated her. “I’ll try.”
“Great. I’ll keep lookin’ into this. If I dig up anythin’ interestin’, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks, Les.”
They needed to find a way around that treaty.
Without getting everyone killed in the process.
Paige picked up a pen to write a note for the wall when her phone rang again.
Dexx raised an eyebrow. “Grand Central Station.”
“No shit,” Paige muttered as she answered. “Whisky.”
“Guerrerro. We’ve got a problem.”
“What?”
“Chast ran the DNA like I asked her, but before she could contaminate the sample, it set up a red flag in the database.”
In order for that to happen, it meant that the DNA sample was either someone the FBI was interested in, or it was someone high in the ranks. “Who?”
“Governor Hicks.”
Paige felt all the blood rush from her face. “Oh, shit.”
“That’s what I said, but less eloquently. Fuck! I’ve never had a case go so sideways.”
She’d had plenty of experience with cases that went sideways, but not quite like this. Demons liked to play weird, strange games.
“What do we do?” he asked, his voice rising in pitch.
“Go to him. Question him. Don’t let the press follow you.”
“What should I ask him?”
“What you normally would.”
“I need you here.”
“If I could be within fifty feet of the man when he’s possessed, I would be.”
“How do I check him for possession?”
Kevin’s bear had said Hell’s scribe had moved from body to body, leaving his demon mark everywhere. “Likely, he won’t be. But, just in case, grab the holy water from Dexx’s bag.”
“Which is located in your locked apartment. Where are you?”
“Police station in Nederland. I hid a key.”
“Where?”
“Three buildings down, there’s a red-leafed bush. Under that bush is a circle of rocks. To the right of that is a larger rock with a protection rune carved into it.”
“And how am I going to know what rune it is?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s the only rock with a rune on it. Under that, is the key to my apartment. Don’t lose it.”
“I’d hate to see you make it easy,” Tony muttered.
“And use the back door, not the front.”
“Okay. Okay. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Excellent.” It was nice having a partner who knew what the hell was going on.
“How are things there?”
“Good. Kevin came back. He’s doing well. He was well cared for, but he had an implant.”
“Like Elizabeth Harwood?”
“Yup.”
“Who’s running tests on it?”
She winced. “Karl has a person. We should have results by the end of the day.”
“Good.”
“You were checking to see if I sent it to Barn.” What a jackass.
“Bringing him in on this was a bad idea.”
“I didn’t see you coming up with any better ones.”
Tony was silent.
“Yeah. Let me know what the governor says.” She hung up.
“Governor?” Dexx asked.
Paige closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “That’s the person the demon possessed to kill Elizabeth Harwood.”
Dexx was quiet.
Paige opened her eyes.
His expression was wide with stupefied shock.
“And, get this, our demon is none other than the scribe of Hell.”
Dexx’s mouth fell open. His lips curved inward as if to form words, but nothing came out.
Paige closed her eyes again, visualizing everything, placing all of what she knew on top of each other to see what pattern formed. “What am I missing? Why would the scribe of Hell be here on Earth? Why did he possess a governor, and then kill one of Sven’s shapeshifters?”
“Hey.”
“Yeah.” She opened her eyes.
He raised his eyebrows. “Sven’s not killing them. So, whatever Demon Scribe Dude is doing, that’s not on you.”
“Right.” That was a relief, but they still had a problem. “I just don’t know where to go from here.”
He shrugged.
Someone knocked on the glass door of the conference room and Jakobs popped her head in. “Detective, I have someone here to see you.”
Paige frowned, but followed.
Kris, the barista, stood in the middle of the station, a cup of coffee in her hand. She shifted from one foot to the other, obviously uncomfortable.
Forcing herself to relax her expression, Paige stepped out to greet the woman. “Kris, it’s a surprise to see you.” She hadn’t really expected for the woman to follow up with her.
“I thought about what you said.” Kris offered the coffee cup to Paige. “That’s something different. You liked the other one, so I thought I’d let you try this.”
Paige saluted with the cup. “Thanks.”
“Like I said, I was thinking about what you said, and I’m ready.”
Paige sipped the latte to hide her surprise. “Have you been reviewing your dreams?”
Kris nodded. “But they aren’t telling me what I need to know.”
“Then, what makes you so ready to trust me?” The treaty hung at the back of Paige’s mind
. What was in that treaty? What were they doing in that moment to negate it?
“Sam and Sheriff Karl, mostly.” Kris’ dark gaze flitted about the room, looking at everyone but Paige. “And my spirit. She says I should trust you.”
Paige licked her lips, enjoying the nutty espresso flavor remaining on them. That woman could make one fantastic cup of coffee. “Okay. Well, then, why don’t we step into my office?”
Kris nodded curtly.
Paige headed for Sheriff Karl’s office. She knocked on the wooden doorway.
Karl raised her head. “Mmm?”
“Kris is here, from the coffee shop?”
“Oh, right. Yeah.” Karl sat up and leaned back in her chair, rocking slightly.
“She has some suppressed memories and she has agreed to let me help her with that.”
“Oh. Good.”
“Yes.” Paige stepped into the office. “But I’ve never actually done this before.”
“You said,” Kris stated, “you could help.”
“And I can.” Paige held out her free hand, palm down, fingers flared. “I think.”
“And I’m in here because?” Karl asked, though her face said she wasn’t moving if Paige changed her mind and asked her to leave.
“You and your animal spirit are very soothing to the shifters. You have a gift. Just in case things get interesting—” And by “interesting,” she meant down-right terrifying. “—I would like you here to help settle things.”
Karl released a breath from one side of her lips. “Okay. Kris, you’re sure you’re okay with this?”
The barista moved past Paige and walked to the second chair in front of the sheriff’s desk. “Yes. I think.”
“If at any time you decide you don’t want to, you can end this.”
Kris nodded.
Karl gestured for them both to sit. “Okay. Let’s begin.”
Paige took in a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her coffee, then set it on the desk. She switched her vision from reality to witch vision, and then tuned it to shifter vision. With practice, hopefully that would get easier. She felt like a toddler trying to work a bicycle.
The top of a giant weeping willow tree swayed over Kris’ head. Trailing branches swept along either side of the barista’s face.
It was rather difficult to question a tree.
Something touched Paige’s soul as the tree lowered and morphed with Kris’ face. A feeling of being chided by a wizened mother.
Paige’s brow crinkled through a slight smile. “Hello, willow.”
“Greetings, witch,” Kris said, bobbing her head with the sway of the tree branches around her.
“Kris, are you in control?”
“We are at peace, witch.” Kris’ voice was her own, no tonal inflection differences, but her words were softly spoken, as if the fear Kris had been showing was no longer there. “We do not fight over control.”
“That is good.” Paige flexed her fingers on her knees. “Willow, is there anything you can tell us about the memories suppressed in your host’s mind?”
“We can.” Kris blinked. When her eyes opened again, lightning laced pools of water replaced her irises. “Join our mind.” Kris held out both hands; one to Sheriff Karl, the other to Paige.
Karl blinked, her fox spirit already leaning forward, her pink soul flaring with excitement.
Paige shrugged and took Kris’ fingers in her own.
The office swept away and was replaced by the interior of the coffee shop.
Kris stood behind the counter, looking down at her book, but she watched the pair at the table through her eyelashes.
“What are you doin’ here?” the blonde man in the black leather duster asked with a sneer.
“I could ask you the same thing,” said the other man with a soft, English lilt. He turned his ginger head toward the window. “He sees you and He’s not happy.”
“Not happy? Wha’ does he even care? I found his bleedin’ favorite and returned him to Hell.”
“Finding Lucius has only bought you time.”
“Oriel, Oriel, Oriel.” Sven sighed. “Why are you here? You’re not here because of the little mess I made.”
“No.”
“Then, what am I to do with you?
The other demon tipped his head with a slight smile. “You will do nothing to me.”
“That’s not what I said, is it?”
Oriel’s smile widened, though his eyes remained hard. “A reminder. What are your plans with the summoner?”
Sven’s eyes narrowed with interest. “You’re here for her.”
“You are of no interest to me.”
“But she is?”
“What she will become is of interest to me.”
Sven ran a fingertip along his bottom lip. “Oh. I see. And you’re worried what I will do to her.”
“You have already interfered.”
“By making her stronger.”
Oriel sat back in his chair with a sigh.
“How do you know that I’m not part of the ruddy plan? Eh? How do you think she gets so powerful on her own?”
“She was born that way.”
“So was her daft great-grandmother. You saw how that turned out.”
Oriel raised his nearly invisible eyebrows, his lips flat.
“Why’d you kill that shifter?”
Oriel flattened his fingers along the tabletop. “To get her attention.”
Sven studied the other demon for a long moment, then realization brightened his face. “You have the solution, don’t you?”
Oriel pursed his lips.
“It’s not in the chip.”
“No. It is not. The whole idea of the chip in their brain is rather barbaric. Don’t you think?”
Sven leaned forward on his elbows. “What is it? What’s the cure?”
“For Paige? Or for you?”
Sven flinched.
“You have tarried here too long, Sven. You’re powerless. The might of your seven tails has waned. Without the power of your own realm, you are as useless as a human.”
Sven glared.
Oriel tore open two sugar packets, spilled the contents on the table, and began tracing something with it. “Come back.”
“You know I can’t.”
“Surely you can find a way to repent.”
Sven slid his gaze out the window, his lips twisted in disdain. “No.”
“Well. What are your plans for the summoner?”
“You actually think I’m going to tell you?”
“If you feel you’re going to regain entry without His permission, think again. You wouldn’t make it even with her help.”
Sven chuckled, but his eyes lacked mirth.
“Ah. So that is why you opened a door to Hell within her soul.”
Sven shook his head.
“It won’t work.”
“Says you.”
“You’ve tried?” Oriel raised his head and tipped it to the side. “I’m sure you have. It didn’t work. Did it?”
Sven turned his face away so Kris couldn’t see his expression.
“You will only gain entry back to Hell though Him.” Oriel glanced at Kris and waved his fingers. His gaze rose and connected with Paige’s as she stared out through Kris’ willow-eyes. “Leave the summoner alone.”
“I’ll do as I please.”
“You always do.”
Sven glanced at Kris.
“No worries, Seven Tails.” Oriel rose from his chair. “I took care of her memories. Stop being so sloppy.”
The vision ended.
Paige pulled back. Had that been…just a little too easy?
Kris’ willow straightened, her branches swaying. “That is all the information we have for you. We hope it is enough.”
Paige nodded and blinked her vision back to normal. She swallowed and turned to Sheriff Karl. “That was very helpful.”
The scribe wasn’t working with Sven.
And Sven was trying to get
back to Hell. Through her.
What did all of that mean?
Karl frowned at her, but nodded. Her eyes trailed to Kris as she left. “What was that? First with Kevin and now with Kris? What are you doing? Are we safe from you?”
Paige waited for the door to close, buying herself time to get her thoughts and heart under control. She finally knew why Sven had cast the spell into her bones. That helped. Kind of. “Safe? Yes.”
“Were you controlling Kevin’s animal spirit?”
“No.” Paige looked up, her eyes unfocused as she tried to find the words. “I just see the spirit and by acknowledging it, they come out.”
“You can see our spirit animals?”
“Yes.” Paige held out her hand, palm up. “You have a soothing pink soul and you calm people with it. You’re also a fox.”
Karl flinched.
“Your element is…” A sharp bite of hot copper laced her tongue and stung her nose. “Fire.”
“So, you could control me.”
“Why would I?” The thought pissed her off. Her fingers flexed, but she fought to keep that emotion off her face. “Why would I do that? What purpose would that serve? No. It’s stupid.”
“And immoral,” Dexx said, stepping into the office. “Hey, just wanted to let you know that another couple of shifters showed back up. They’re waiting out front.”
“That’s great. Thanks.”
“Which ones?” Karl asked.
Dexx shrugged. “Don’t know. Emily is processing them right now.”
“That’s Officer Jakobs to you.”
“Or Emily for those of us not on the Force.” Dexx cocked a lopsided grin at her.
Karl narrowed her dark eyes, studying Paige for a long moment. “Fine. Let them know I’ll see them in a minute.”
Dexx exited the office.
“But you.” Karl thumped her fingers in a stiff cadence against the desk. “I need to get to the bottom of what I saw.’
“Me, too.” Her shit storm just kept getting deeper.
“I’m not talking about the case. Paige.”
Oh. First names. Serious.
“I’m talking about the treaty.”
Oh. Paige thought they’d been over this, that Karl was okay with everything. “What do you know about it? Have you seen it?”
“We know it.”
That didn’t sound good. “Do you know where it is?”
“Hidden somewhere safe.”
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