Dexx walked to the trunk of his car and grabbed his duffle bag. “Keep him busy. I’ll trap him inside.”
Tony glanced at Paige. “What can I do? He’s a demon.”
She didn’t know.
“Attack his meat suit,” Dexx said, pulling out a knife from the trunk before closing it.
Something jerked on Paige’s soul. She gritted her teeth and stumbled backward a step. “He knows we’re here. So, you might want to hurry.”
Dexx handed Tony his demon-hunting knife. “Use this, but be careful.”
“Why?”
Dexx stopped next to him, shouldering his duffle. “Because there’s a human in there who’s been carjacked. Don’t kill him if you don’t have to.” He disappeared behind the small, wooden church.
“But,” Paige said, glaring at the door, “if you have no other choice? Jam that knife in the demon’s chest.” She licked her lips and shoved her useless hands in her pockets, shivering from the spring chill. “Kill them both.”
The door to hell flared painfully, tugging her closer to the church, drawing her in.
Blessed Mother, she needed to figure out how to fix that.
With a demon in there, she needed her gift.
Okay. But she couldn’t use it. What could she do?
Well, she was a witch and she could use the elements really, really well. So, maybe she could—
What? Call up the wind? Blow down the door?
Call down the rain? What about the thunder? Do a little Thor impression? She needed a hammer for that.
This was getting her nowhere.
She really needed to refresh her witch skills. She’d always relied heavily on her demon gift. But now? Yeah. It might have been worth paying a bit more attention to Alma when she’d been teaching basic spells.
Shit. Basic spells. She could do more than just call up the wind. She could…
Turn a man into a toad?
Her phone rang the ringtone for an unknown caller. She almost hit ignore, but something told her to answer. “Detective Whiskey.”
“Paige.”
Rage flared in Paige’s chest as soon as she heard the nasally voice on the other end of the line.
“It’s your mother.”
Oh. She knew.
“I heard you remember me, now.”
“I never forgot you, Rachel. I was made to forget my daughter.”
“Whom I saved, but I’m sure you have it in your head that I stole her.”
Paige wanted to punch something, maim something. She wanted to rip and tear something, shred it.
“I take your silence as a sign that you’ve, perhaps, learned your lesson?”
Which one? The lesson about being evil by birth? “What do you want, Rachel?”
“Do you have something more important to do?”
“I am in the middle of a life and death situation.”
“It’s always something else with you, isn’t it?”
Paige fucking hated that woman. “Someone is about to die. Right now.”
“Sounds like an excuse. Fine. If now is inconvenient, I can call back later.”
“Rachel,” Paige growled, her vision flaring. “What did you want?”
“Well, I was just going to offer to send you some photos of Leah since you remember her now. Not that it’s probably that important to you anyway, but I thought I would offer.”
“I would love pictures.” Any gift from that woman was a Trojan horse.
“I’ll mail you a thumb drive with them on it.”
“I have email.”
“Yes, well, I don’t know exactly how to do all that. I’ll just finish Photoshopping them and then save them onto a thumb drive.”
“You can Photoshop, but you don’t know how to email them?”
“The files will be too large, Paige. It always has to be your way, doesn’t it? You always have to parade the fact that you know better than everyone else.”
That’s what Rachel did. Paige swallowed those words. “Maybe you could ask your son.”
“Nick is your brother.”
“I didn’t think you’d want to muddy his image with my connection to him.” They barely knew one another, but they were trying to build a relationship.
Rachel didn’t immediately answer.
A shot rang out from the church.
“What you must think of me.”
Paige’s heart raced. Yes. She needed to talk to Rachel to rebuild that bridge, but not now. Wrap it up. “I think you hate me.”
“I am the only person on this planet who could ever love you, despite everything you are.”
How could she not hear her own words? “Rachel, I have to go.”
“Someone is dying. Yes. I know. You don’t need to make such stories up.”
“You do remember I’m a homicide detective, right?”
“Yes,” Rachel said, her nasally tone flat. “You’re called when the person is already dead, so unless you have a psychic telling you something and you actually had the heart to do something to help someone other than yourself…Really, Paige.”
Something hard slammed into the wall and the church shook.
“I have to go.”
Rachel took in a sharp breath and her tone lightened. “I’ll ask my son how to send you the photos when he comes home.”
“Great.” It took everything in Paige not to growl at the woman. “I’ve got to go.”
“I really do love you.”
Paige hung up and stared at the church, searching for any signs of who was winning. “I don’t think you know what that word even means.”
Her heart hammering with anger and flaring with hope, her mind raced. What could she do?
For whom? For that shifter inside the church?
Perhaps.
For her partners?
Definitely.
For her daughter?
Her heart twisted painfully. She’d let her daughter down by failing to keep her anger in check the night Rachel had crossed state lines.
Would she do things different with what knew now?
Rachel had extended the olive branch. That had to count for something.
Or did it? If she had the ability to go back and do it all over again, she’d do the same thing, except maybe this time, she’d go herself, wrap her own hands around her mother’s neck, and watch as the light slowly dimmed.
She breathed that information in. Maybe her mother was right. She was evil.
Or maybe she was simply tired of dealing with the evil being handed to her. Her mother was evil, powered by angels who wanted nothing more than to destroy mankind in any way possible. The demons were revolting, attempting to “awaken” humans before they were ready. War was imminent. She was the only one capable of stopping it because of her gift.
A gift she couldn’t fuck frelling use!
Her emotions raced from her in a wave of seething, roiling, pitching red, like a bubbling storm.
Blue-grey fog met it, swirling around the meadow, hiding the church from view. Tendrils of the humid smoke touched the volatile emotions Paige had purged.
Similar to Karl’s spirit, the fog sent sparks of blinding light into Paige’s rage, lancing it with holes.
Paige’s head jerked and she stared at it, not with her witch vision, but with her real eyes. She could see the fog and her emotions, with her real eyes.
Snakes of light raced from the fog, slithering into the dark, red cloud of her emotions. To banish? To enlighten?
Her rage intensified. She had earned the right to loathe her mother. She deserved revenge. She would not be smothered again. She would not remain silenced.
Silenced? a silky voice asked, permeating her mind. No.
The blue-grey mist advanced.
Control? the silky voice grew harsh. Never.
The red of Paige’s emotions cooled to a throbbing pink.
Assist?
Looking for anything, a face, a location of the voice, Paige found nothing.
&nbs
p; Possibly. Cage? Unthinkable.
Paige took a step back. The only thing she could see was Tony’s car beside her. Had she done something wrong? Had the All Mother come to her? Sent this fog?
Pain drilled through Paige’s temple as she continued to fight for air.
Like what? Think the wrong thought out loud? As far as Paige knew, she was still free to think whatever she liked as long as she didn’t act on it. And, even if she did, the All Mother would judge her in person. She wouldn’t send…whatever this was.
The choke hold on Paige’s throat lessoned.
You did not think wrong, the silky voice said.
Paige straightened, reeling in her emotions, the constriction on her air receding almost completely.
You were honest, a thing that is rare as pure snow.
Rare as pure snow?
The mist folded backward and a face emerged; long muzzle, small, round eyes, cat-like ears atop the head.
Animal spirit?
Yes.
Paige’s heart raced. This couldn’t be an animal spirit. Aaron had seen what would happen if she was bitten.
We have been watching you since you entered our space.
Space? Animal spirits had space?
Sacred ground. I believe you have heard this term.
“I didn’t think we had any in Colorado.”
You are wrong.
“Well.” Paige shivered as cold swept through her. “I don’t know what you’re doing here. I haven’t been bitten. Dexx was.”
And he is working through his change now.
“Is he?” Paige studied the foggy cat face, trying to glean anything from it. “Will he change?”
Are you asking if he will survive?
“Yeah. I guess I am.”
That will depend on him.
“Can’t you tell? Can’t you see?”
The animal spirits still haven’t decided which animal to pair him with and he has not yet chosen.
“So he could become a butterfly.”
The cat spirit raised his head. It is possible, but I doubt it. Your hunter is a fighter. An animal his equal will bond with him.
“His equal?” In magick, the greater the power, the bigger the risk.
You understand well.
Her heartrate slowed measurably, making it easier to breathe. “Okay. Fine. Great. This is wonderful. Why are you here?”
We needed to know.
“What?”
You. We need to know you.
Oh, great. They’d read her mind when she’d just gotten off the phone with the one person she hated and loved, and hated for loving the most. Her friends were fighting a demon inside a church she couldn’t enter. And they chose now to “get to know her?” Excellent.
These thoughts, the ones you currently think, are very human.
Paige glanced at the cat, then away toward where she knew the church had to be. “Don’t know if you noticed this, but I am human.”
We had.
Clearing her throat, Paige gestured with her hand. “Well, what’s your verdict?”
In your society, when someone does wrong to you, you are not allowed to recompense.
Frustrating, but, yes. “We have a law.”
A law your heart does not believe in.
Paige raised her face to a sky she could not see. She had once.
Then, Rachel happened. She wanted the freedom to make her mother pay for what she’d done.
Yes, the animal spirit said.
That wasn’t something she should be admitting. Out loud. To someone else.
Not to humans. They lack the understanding.
“To understand what?”
That life isn’t good or evil, but that most things must be dealt with in either case.
And my mother? Paige asked in her head, not wanting to voice the words.
Will have to be dealt with one day. In a manner in which she has earned.
Through death? Paige demanded, upset that someone might think that was appropriate, that killing another person was the right approach.
The cat spirit smiled. Do you really think that is the best way to deal with her? Can you not think more creatively than that?
Paige ducked her head. No. Having Rachel die would be the best thing for her. What Rachel needed was a karma spell, if one existed.
You are a witch, are you not? the bear spirit asked.
“I am.”
Then make one.
Calm, real calm, settled through Paige as if the right answer had added the perfect pitch to a song. Her mouth fell open. She took in a deep breath to thank the spirit for her advice.
The smoky fog slipped between her lips.
Startled fear shot through her.
The cat’s face did not deteriorate, but the fog bank dispersed.
Inside Paige’s mouth.
The spirit filled her, reaching deep into her fingers, flexing her toes. It ran along her muscles.
Paige fought. She would not be possessed again. She would have complete control over her body at all times.
Yes, a low tolling bell-like voice said inside her mind.
She stilled, her eyes locked onto the cat spirit’s.
Energy seeped into her bones. From her skull, down her arms, her fingers, up her toes, her legs, her hips, her spine, her ribs.
We accept you.
Fire seared her chest. Burning her from the inside out. She couldn’t move, couldn’t roll to put the fire out.
Her vision pulsed.
Human.
Witch.
Shifter.
Witch.
Shifter.
Human.
The trees flowed with green, radiant energy.
They stood like towering sentinels of normal bark and leaves.
They blended together; bark solid, leaves glowing.
Back to flowing green.
The sky pulsed with throbbing energy. The air molecules danced before her eyes.
The scabbed spell on her chest itched and burned.
She fought to gain control of one hand, her power hand, and tugged at her shirt to see the wound.
Scabbed, ugly, and puckered.
The edges blazed with steel blue light.
Both versions melded together.
The scab fell away.
The steel blue light cooled.
The pink skin whitened.
A mercurial silver flowed over the steel blue blazing light, folding together, weaving, sewing, mending, fixing.
The light flared once.
Paige fell to the ground, writhing in pain.
Then, the fire was out.
She panted, the moisture from the ground permeating her clothes.
The cat and the remaining fog fled from the meadow, revealing the church again.
Using her witch vision, she looked at her chest again. The scar was hard to see. A bare, thin, white trail that was hard to distinguish. She peered deeper into herself, past her red aura, into the heart of her soul.
She couldn’t see the door. A silver sheen rippled through the red of her soul where the door used to be.
It still called to her, though. The tug remained.
But she controlled it.
Paige swallowed, feeling the space inside her own skin. Animal spirit?
Yes, it answered in a voice that was not male nor female. It came out as more of a growl.
But with it came a sense of completeness.
Do you accept my help? the animal spirit asked.
Do you accept me? Paige asked in return.
Yes.
Paige’s hands shook. She’d been looking for a solution. Could she be so lucky? Could this really be it?
But Aaron’s vision had said she’d be a danger.
And there was the treaty. Did it cover this?
Probably not.
Another gunshot rang out inside the church.
She really didn’t have time to debate. Then, yes.
The animal spirit wove wit
h hers, as if creating a tapestry on an ancient loom. Paige’s soul flared red, then purple, then blue, pink, green, and yellow, then back to red. A flurry of emotions surged through her; anger, wisdom, serenity, fear, stress, curiosity, then back to rage.
She blazed a white-hot blue. She was on fire, but she could feel nothing. Not the cool air around her. Not the moisture in the earth beneath her.
Not the demon in the church.
When the blinding white light faded, the mark that had been cast into her bone, that line of a hole that bridged her body to the demon plane was filled…with something grey that pulsed in time to the beat of Paige’s heart.
We are one now, the animal spirit said in a quiet male voice.
Paige felt comforted as if someone had brushed their hand along her head and held her close.
She lay on the ground, spent.
But the demon inside the church did not pull on her.
Her lips rose and then they split into a wide smile. A laugh escaped her. Her arms, flung wide, she fell to the ground.
She was fixed.
Her belly rolled with laughter as the knowledge flew through her.
She was whole again.
Paige scrambled to her feet and ran toward the church. Her animal spirit added power to her legs, filling her muscles with energy, propelling her forward faster. She took the stairs two at a time. She leapt up the top three steps, and yanked the double doors open.
Sven had wanted a spirit animal for power. She now understood why.
Dexx knelt in the middle of the aisle, yelling his exorcism over the swell of wind.
Jack lay on the floor beside the pulpit. His hand twitched. His leg jerked.
Karl was pinned to the far wall, her eyes wide.
Tony yelled something from the dais. He unscrewed the lid from the bottle of holy water and threw it at the man standing beside the pulpit.
His arms were wide. The wind whipped his shirt and jacket. His back arched. He threw his head back.
The holy water hissed and rose in swirls of steam from his bared flesh. The boiled skin glistened pink, then healed completely.
The animal spirit fed her soul, fed her rage, fed her sense of duty, her feeling of being fed up with the entire situation. Sick of being caged. Tired of remaining hidden.
She stepped over Dexx’s protections.
“Hey!” he shouted.
“Your exorcism,” she yelled back.
The wind howled. She didn’t know if he heard her or not, but his words continued.
whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick Page 20