He licked his lips and gave her a hug. “I love you.”
She hugged him back with her everything. It was all she could do. “I know.”
“I hate you.” He pulled back, shaking his head.
“I know.” She picked Rai’s car seat back up and went to the porch.
Merry and Eldora were already there.
Eldora cut a door open, inky blackness staring back at them.
“How did the supply run go?” Paige asked her.
“Well.” Eldora gestured to the door. “Take this.” She held out (a description) “When you’re ready to come back, we’ll get you out. Do not open your door until you’ve been trained.”
Paige took the charm. It didn’t look like much. Actually, it looked like a stone with a symbol cut into it put on a leather strip. She put it over her head one-handed.
Eldora handed one to Leah as well.
Merry took Ember from Leah. “I’m not getting your bags,” she told the teen.
Leah smiled up at her and grabbed the rolling suitcase. “You’re coming too?”
Paige had almost forgotten what a happy child Leah used to be, back before Rachel, Paige’s mother, had taken her and raised her. Ever since she’d gotten Leah back, she’d been hormonal. Moody.
She didn’t know how she’d gotten the old Leah back, but she wasn’t going to ask stupid questions either. She just wished she wasn’t being that nice to Merry Eastwood, the actual Wicked Witch of the West.
Merry stepped through Eldora’s door and disappeared.
Paige let Leah go first, then followed her daughter through and stepped onto a noisy tarmac directly beside a plane.
“I’m not going with you. At least, not this time. I’m staying behind in case you need help.” Merry handed Ember off to one of the waiting flight attendants and booped his sleeping nose before he was taken away. She met Paige’s gaze squarely. “You are walking into a trap.”
Hearing Merry utter those words out loud only made her feel worse. “I should leave the kids.”
“No.” Merry sighed heavily, folding her hands in front of her black business dress. “You parade those kids around every camera you can find. You make people see you as a concerned mother. You’re white, you’re clean, and you’re an upstanding citizen of the U.S. Use those weapons to their fullest.”
She didn’t feel comfortable thinking of those qualities as “weapons” to use. But she wasn’t in a position to be squeamish about those luxuries, either. Leah was blonde, which only helped her. The Arians were blonde haired and white, which meant she might even get their sympathy. She doubted it, but it could happen. What would this situation be like if she and her family was black?
She wouldn’t be flying to Washington D.C. to talk to the President. That’s what.
How had things gotten so scewed?
Reality was that it hadn’t. Not really. It was just twisted enough so that she and those like her fell under the to-be-hated clause as well. The hate had always been there, like a sleeping giant in a tiny room.
Well, if she could figure out how to break through for her kind, she’d find a way to break through it—really break through it—for everyone else too.
Baby steps.
Make people fall in love with her cute, white children. Then world domination and free love for everyone.
Fuck love. Just an even playing field would be nice.
The flight attendants were very helpful getting her sleeping circus onto the plane. And flying in Merry’s plane was the nicest experience she’d ever had. It even had on-board Wi-Fi, so she was able to catch up on the news and research the area for places to take Leah.
But what she saw concerned her. She’d at first thought they’d cut off communications because there’d been nothing about what was going on with the paranormals on the news.
She quickly discovered that there was simply nothing on the news about it.
No one knew what was going on.
Like the bombing of the black neighborhood a hundred years ago hadn’t been on the news. Was it really this good? Or were the horrors being covered up?
She hoped the dragon really was on top of this. If there was something else going on here, the world needed to see it. The power of the press really was a powerful tool, and one the people couldn’t afford to lose.
She managed to get a slight nap in on the flight. She wasn’t stupid. She was a new mother and not nearly as young as she should have been to bring in two new lives into the world. She also had zero idea of what she was walking into.
Though, reality was that she wasn’t going to see the President, even with Merry’s political strings. She’d make it some Senator’s office. Maybe even her own. She had no idea. Well, she really had no idea how her government even worked.
And that thought spawned an entire research session that lasted a good five minutes. It could have been closer to three. It was really boring and put her to sleep faster than Dexx talking to her about car parts.
When she woke, they were landing. The flight attendant was super nice and made sure that the babies were okay. Which, surprisingly, they were. They slept through it all. She’d thought for sure that they’d wake up for at least the landing, but no. Rai pulled on her ear as they descended, but she didn’t stir.
Paige gathered Ember who was still sleeping. Rai woke up and decided to shift into a wolf pup. She scowled at her youngest daughter. “We’re going in public. I need you to be a human.”
Rai gave her a dejected look and whined.
Leah chuckled and scooped up her baby sister. “I’ll carry her in whatever form.”
That wasn’t the point. “We’re about to go into a city of humans. We need to appear as normal as we possibly can.”
Perhaps taking her untrained children into Washington DC had been a worse idea then she first thought.
She sent her next statement through the language of the shape shifters. “That means no shifting unless we are alone and safe. You are to remain as humans while we are out and about.”
Rai was not easily subdued. She was a fighter, true to her Whiskey heart.
Leah’s eyes gleamed with concern, but she said nothing.
Paige was ever so grateful for the flight attendants. They made getting off the plane with the babies and the suitcase and her computer bag and the diaper bag and Leah’s backpack easy.
She spotted the car that was waiting for them, when a motorcade came through the airport gate. She peered out the windows to look for other important planes. Who could they be there for? This airport had to see a lot of important senators and other dignitaries land.
However, the motorcade seemed to be headed toward her and her kids.
She stopped, her heart pounding, her magick restless. She couldn’t unleash her magick there. She had to wait, to deal with as a human being, not as a witch.
A small army of men and women in black suits, ties and sunglasses, spilled out of the vehicles and two of them approached Paige.
The man never stopped swiveling his head, apparently searching for an attack.
The woman smiled, but it could have just been gas.
“Ma’am,” the leader said, her voice clipped. “You’ll have to come with us. We’re here escort you to the White House.”
Definitely gas.
Leah looked up at Paige and grinned. “See? This isn’t bad.”
This probably wasn’t going to turn out as well as Leah hoped. A chill of fear rippled down Paige’s spine as two other men took her bags. If the President was actually making a point to see her, then maybe things were worse than Dexx had feared.
The woman turned and gestured toward the motorcade. “If you and your kids will just get inside?”
Paige didn’t want to get in that SUV. And she certainly didn’t want to take her kids into it. Were they really going to the White House? Or would they be taken to a prison? “I actually have a rental car waiting for me. With room
for the car seats.”
The woman didn’t smile. “Your rental has been taken care of, and there’s ample room for your car seats.”
One of the men went to Leah to take Ember from her.
Leah frowned, confused. “These are the good guys.”
Paige hoped so.
She shuffled her children into the SUV and got both Rai and Ember into their seats. As soon as everyone was strapped in, they were off.
Leah asked a million questions.
None of the security personnel were answering her questions.
That didn’t bode well for them at all.
Paige’s nerves ratcheted up the closer they got to the White House.
Leah had finally gotten the clue that no one was going to answer her questions, so she kept them to herself and just stared out the window.
That twisted Paige’s heart. Hard.
Somewhere along the way, Rai had dozed off, and Ember had decided to wake up. He was hungry. And screaming.
Paige wasn’t about to pull him out of his car seat to feed him. So, she had Leah make up a bottle for him and give it to him. She had brought the travel heater. It worked okay. It probably wasn’t safe. None of the conveniences of the modern day were. But it would at least stop the screaming and probably keep them from dying. Ember’s screams were certainly starting to get on the driver’s nerves.
They pulled through the White House gate and a small media circus waited for their arrival. Cameras snapped non-stop.
The security team assisted Paige in dragging her kids through the throng of people. They threw question after question at her, but there were so many of them.
As soon as they made it into the White House foyer,1 they were shuffled into another room. This one was quiet. The door was closed and Paige finished feeding Ember real momma’s milk and then burped to him.
Her nerves went on high alert.
I don’t like this. Cawli’s voice was like a soft blanket inside her head.
She was so glad he’d chosen this moment to show himself again. Her spirit animal wasn’t like everyone else’s, constantly riding shotgun.
Cawli was often gone, leaving only his ability to shift. I don’t either. I’m really thinking that this entire thing was a bad idea.
Whatever happens, I am here.
That was very reassuring.
The door opened and a woman walked through. She had four assistants with her, each carrying a box. She smiled as the door closed behind her. “Ms. Whiskey, we are deeply honored to have you here.”
Paige didn’t think that was strictly true, and she was afraid to ask what was in the boxes.
“I hope you will understand our need for security. While you are in the Washington D.C. area, you and your children will have to wear these.”
The four people carrying the boxes opened them to reveal silver, metal collars.
She had actually been expecting this in the quiet recesses of her mind. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The woman smiled and tipped her head to the side. “We have no true idea of your full power potential. But we do need to make sure that our President is safe while in your presence.”
“How about I just promise not to use my powers on the President. And then we just go with that.”
The woman smiled but didn’t say anything further.
Paige knew that if she fought now, she would just make the situation worse.
She nodded once to Leah who frowned.
The people with the boxes stepped forward and clicked the collars into place.
As soon as the caller snapped around Paige’s neck, Paige lost her connection to Cawli. She hadn’t realized that even when he was elsewhere, she could still feel an echo of him.
Something else filled the void, though. Voices from the other side of the now unraveling Hell’s Gate embedded in her bones. With Cawli supressed, his ability to seal that Gate was gone.
The woman smiled. “Now, the President will see you.”
9
Paige was told how to address the President on their way to the Oval Office. There were so many rules that had to be followed to show respect, Paige was fairly certain she was going to slip up in some weird way. Like, she would burp at the wrong time or fart inappropriately or something.
Paige and never come into contact with anyone with Presidential political clout before. It felt a little like meeting a king or queen. Well, it kinda was exactly like that. It’s just that, in this country, the queen was call Mrs. President.
Paige was shown into the Oval Office and the door closed behind her. No one was there yet and the anther door was still open. Paige wasn’t certain what to do, so she just kind of stood there, waiting.
She trailed a finger along the couch. No stains. How long had it been since her own couch had been stain-free?
The collar chafed at her skin. It wasn’t comfortable in the least little bit, and she wished she hadn’t worn her necklace because the weight of the collar pressed the silver chain into her skin. So, while she waited, she took the necklace off, but kept Eldora’s amulet on.
She looked at the tiny, silver sea turtle, remembering when Dexx had given it to her for Christmas. It was their inside joke. Paige was secretly hoping that in her next lifetime, she would be allowed to be a sea turtle. She wanted to take a hundred-year vacation, just surfing the tides in the ocean. Just swimming around and seeing the wild blue wonders.
But Dexx’s anger at her worried her. He hadn’t been that angry with her since before they started dating. Not for the first time, she wondered if he’d been right and she’d been… wrong.
There was movement at the other door and she quickly shoved her necklace into her pocket.
The President of the United States stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. She looked over at Paige and smiled, her blonde hair in a perfect poof, her blue pant suit immaculate. She gestured to one of the two sofas. “Ms. Whiskey, please have a seat.”
Paige wasn’t entirely certain that sitting at this moment was exactly what she wanted to do. However, if the President of the United States told her to sit, then she was going to sit. So, she did.
“I was glad to hear you decided to come.”
Decided to come. That was a funny way of putting it, as if there’d been an invitation sent. She fingered her collar and grimaced. “You have a very funny way of showing that.”
“This is just for the safety of everyone. We all saw how powerful you are. What we don’t know is what you want.”
“What I want? It’s not like we’re aliens from another planet.” Paige leaned back in the couch but didn’t get comfortable. “We were born here. We were raised here. What do you think we want?”
The President smiled and folded her hands in her lap. “It’s my job to make sure Americans are safe.”
That was the third time that particular statement had been repeated. “Last time I checked, I’m American, too. And I believe you know exactly how safe you are, Madam President. Based on the collars, I’d have to say you and your people have been researching us for a very long time.” Something she already had intimate knowledge of. “Long enough to know how to mute our abilities, and that doesn’t make me feel safe.”
The President flicked her eyebrows up and relaxed on the couch opposite Paige. She let her head fall back slightly as she assessed Paige. “What I mean to say is that I don’t know if I can trust you.”
That seemed reasonable. “I don’t know if I can trust you either.”
The President took in a deep breath and tapped her leg. “You threw my team out of your town.”
“They came into the into the grocery store and pointed a gun at a baby. My baby. How was I supposed to react?”
The President grimaced. “That was perhaps an oversight on our part.”
Paige didn’t buy that for a moment. Now that she was in the same room as the woman, she was getting a much different feel for her
than she had through the campaign trail.
The President had a certain confidence that seemed to emanate from her, and she didn’t react like someone who was “new” to this paranormals-exist situation. She wasn’t stupid. She didn’t seem like the type of person who made an error of judgment.
The only thing the President didn’t know was just who Paige was. “If you truly want peace with our kind, then make sure that it looks like you want peace with our kind.”
“And what would that look like?”
“Perhaps fewer guns.” Why would she even have to say that out loud?
“And when your people bring out their abilities? You can do things with your mind. Our people only have guns.”
That was a lie. “So, you don’t know that the DoDO are witches?”
The President smiled and bit her bottom lip. “They are not, but I do appreciate you trying to undermine them.”
“I assure you they are.”
“They do have abilities, which is something they need in order to hunt your kind down, but they most certainly are not witches.”
So, what did they tell the President they were, if not witches? Mages? Because that was so much better? “Do you even know who you’ve gone to bed with?”
“Your enemy. Your natural predator.”
That was rich. “Did you employ any background research when you deployed them to hunt the people of your country? People you swore to protect?”
“But you aren’t, are you?”
Wait. What?
“People, I mean. You’re something different.”
She was treading a path that was dangerous. As soon as people stopped seeing others as people, as soon as they started seeing them as things to be feared, then the rules of propriety were thrown out the window. It didn’t matter what people did to those who weren’t people. They could be as ugly and as cruel as they wanted. “I think you’ll find we are indeed people. We’re just people with different skill sets.”
“That’s the reason you brought your children? Smart move, that one.”
“I brought them because I just gave birth to them.” Paige was starting to get a bit pissed and needed to tone that down. “I’m on this thing called maternity leave? I know it’s not a thing here, but I’m on it.”
Whiskey Storm Page 7