A Barrel of Whiskey - (An Urban Fantasy Whiskey Witches Novel) (7 page)

“You what?”

Henry raised his hand to stop her outrage. “I had to. I knew what was at stake.”

She’d had a helper. She’d been really lucky, and she’d never realized it. It made her feel stupid, unobservant. She couldn’t be unobservant and be good at her job. “You’re offering me my old job back?”

He winced and sat back in his black chair. “Not quite.”

She frowned.

Dexx resituated in his chair.

“You see, after you left, things got a bit worse.”

A knot formed in the base of Paige’s gut. “Describe a ‘bit worse’.”

Henry rubbed his balding head and leaned forward. “Demon possession is on the rise. We don’t know why. We don’t know what’s going on. We only know there are more demons topside than ever before. Probably because of you not being around.”

Paige flinched.

“I talked to Balnore about that, trying to get you back, but he wouldn’t hear anything about it. Said you did something you couldn’t come back from.”

“I summoned a demon to kill my mother.”

Henry raised a surprised eyebrow. “That bitch is still alive.”

“That is,” Dexx muttered, “still an issue.”

Henry flailed with his hands. “If she’s still alive, why did they decide your gift had to be banned for five years?”

“They overreacted.” Paige didn’t want to get into it. This was a part of her life she’d never shared with her boss, with anyone she worked with, really. Well, outside of Dexx. “What matters is that I’m back now.”

“No. I mean, that’s good. Don’t get me wrong, but, no. That’s not all that matters. I lost people.
We
lost people because we didn’t have you.”

She swallowed. What did he want her to say? There was nothing she
could
say.

He picked up a case file from behind his desk. He didn’t have to stoop, so it had to be on a side table or something. He tossed it toward her. It landed on the corner of his desk. “Innocent people, Paige.”

She picked up the folder and opened it.

Angela Wright. Age thirty-two. Mother of four. Died from unexplained causes. Her heart had been shredded inside of her body.

“She killed eight people before we exorcised the demon inside her.”

“You?” Paige asked in surprise, her eyebrows raised. “Exorcised her?”

Henry nodded, his shoulders slumped with weariness. “I did.”

“Is that the reason she—” Paige gestured to the file. The reason exorcisms weren’t performed by just anyone was because they could get them wrong. Very wrong. Like letting-a-demon-kill-the-host-on-the-way-out kind of wrong.

Dexx frowned and pulled the file from her lap to read through it. “Oh. Really? Her heart was shredded?”

Henry huffed and pulled another file from behind his desk. “Yes. It has something to do with the exorcism. We think. But we don’t know what.”

Paige stood up and took two steps to see around his desk. Henry had been retrieving those files from a tall stack of files. There were dozens of them. Maybe even a hundred? Most were not thick.

Dexx had taken the other file Henry had offered. His eyes widened as he closed it. “We need to look at your exorcism.”

“Or teach him how to do it right,” Paige muttered.

“Or that.”

“Why didn’t you ask Balnore?” Paige knelt beside the stack of files and rifled through them gently. All of these were her fault. All these people. The people they killed. Their deaths? Yes. She could have stopped all of that.

If she’d been there.

“He hasn’t been returning my calls.” Henry canted his jaw to the side and sighed down at the pile of papers beside his chair. “We really need your help, Paige. You came home at the perfect time.”

Why had so many people been insistent she come home? Everyone, to include Oriel, the Scribe of Hell? Was it because of this? Did Oriel know what was going on here? What Henry was trying to do?

Why wouldn’t he have known? He was Hell’s scribe. He must have seen just about everything down there.

“I haven’t decided if I’m staying.” She didn’t even realize she was going to speak and the words were already out of her mouth.

“What?” Concerned alarm crashed over Henry’s expression. “But we need you.”

“Yes, well—” Paige licked her lips. “I could be used just about anywhere.” She didn’t even know if that was true. She didn’t know because she hadn’t done any research. Maybe she should be on the road, like Dexx. Going from one town to the next cleaning up the demon messes?

Henry released two quick breaths that were almost words as he floundered. “I thought…” He shook his head. “You came home.”

Oh, man. Seeing him like this, this surprised and at a loss? She felt like a complete ass for entertaining the thought of not staying. “I was fired.”

“I heard.”

“So, you know what happened.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“No. It wasn’t. However, maybe if I hadn’t been there, it wouldn’t have happened.”

Henry snorted, anger settling around his eyes. He picked up a file and flung it at her. “That happened while you were gone. So did this one. And this one.”

She batted them away. There was no way of catching them the way he tossed them. “Okay! I get it.” She leaned forward to retrieve them and placed them back on the stack. She stood and walked back to her chair. “These things happen whether I’m here or not.”

“They do. And, trust me, without you, things get a lot worse.”

Even though he was making her feel like an ass, she still wasn’t sold on the idea that this was the best place for her.

“A few people started working these cases on their own.” Henry scratched his eyebrow, all signs of anger erased. “I figured it out pretty quick. With you missing, I was covering those cases on my own.”

“I’ve never seen you in the field.”

“You left me no choice.”

“Sorry.”

He waved her apology away. “I don’t blame you, but if you’re really sorry, prove it by staying.”

She wasn’t ready for that yet. “Tell me what happened.”

“Well, like I said, a few police officers and detectives started working these cases on their own. They weren’t doing too bad, but they didn’t have the information.”

“
You
didn’t have the information.”

“I did, however, have Balnore for the first three years. He was a wealth of information.”

She remembered how he’d helped her as her gifts were growing, but he was a demon and had other priorities, so he couldn’t really be counted on. “Yes. He is. Okay. What next?”

“Well, I met with them, got their backgrounds. Most of them are here because they saw something they couldn’t explain or lost someone due to circumstances that didn’t make sense.”

Dexx shrugged and glanced at Paige. “That’s how I’m here.”

“Demon hunter.” Henry frowned. “I read your file.”

“You haven’t read the right one.” Dexx sat up straighter in his chair, then leaned down on his elbow resting on the metal armrest. “I’ll get it to you. The list of demons and other paranormals I’ve taken down is pretty impressive.”

“Paranormals.” Paige turned in her seat. “And no mention of shape shifters or vampires?”

He rolled his eyes. “Mentioned? Sure. But I didn’t believe it. I treated them like anything else, and dealt with them.”

“And that’s not going to come up and bite you in the ass?”

His face screwed up in “how the fuck should I know” as he shrugged.

Henry frowned at them both. “I’ve put together a special unit that only deals with these types of cases.”

“An entire unit?”

“We cover more than just Dallas. Our jurisdiction covers all of Texas.”

“How did you manage that?”

“Demons like to possess some pretty powerful people, Paige. I thought you would have figured that out already.”

She had. But that wasn’t the point at the moment. “Okay. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

H
enry led them through the desks to another room surrounded by glass on the far end. “My bosses don’t know everything. They only know that I’m in charge of the normal units and a special task unit that handles some of the harder to catch killers.”

Paige nodded. “And the other detectives? Do they know?”

“They’ve all seen stuff, Paige. It’s hard to hide anymore.”

What a strange world she’d just fallen into. She’d come from Denver where she had to hide everything, where there were only two of them working the paranormal, to this? Where all the detectives on the floor knew about her kind of cases? Even if only just a little.

The room on the far end was a lot bigger than it appeared. Four desks sat along the exterior wall and four against the interior glass wall. A long couch took the remaining cement wall space. A door led into another room, this one not made of glass. A round table stood in front of the couch and on the far end was another door, this one open enough to show a desk, though not much more.

A woman, tall, Hispanic, and muscular, perched on the corner of the desk of a shorter man, wide at the shoulders.

He was black—though, why she was supposed to call him black when his skin was brown was beyond her. His features were strong and he had pale, grey-blue eyes. Wow. Striking.

Another man, this one slightly frumpy, white with a full head of brown hair, talked on a landline, typing something onto his computer.

And another woman, tall, her blonde hair swept up into a severe ponytail, worked feverishly on her computer.

“Hey, guys.” Henry cleared his throat and rapped his knuckles against the closest desk.

A few of the people outside their office area looked up from their tasks to see what was going on.

Wow. This was definitely a new experience. Paige was used to flying
under
the radar. Not being on it.

“This is Detective Paige Whiskey.”

The blonde woman quirked her lips to the side, assessing Paige. “I heard you were fired in Denver.”

Paige nodded. “I was.”

The frumpy man glanced up, wrapped up his call, and hung up.

“What happened?” asked the black man with the pale eyes.

“Governor was possessed by a demon and killed a woman, leaving DNA behind. He died of a heart attack after the demon left.”

The Hispanic woman folded her arms over her chest. “Are you working with the same exorcism we are, then? I thought there was supposed to be something special about you.”

“I don’t use exorcisms.”

“But I do,” Dexx said brightly, taking a step forward. “Dexx Colt. Demon hunter. You’re all doing, basically, what I do. Only, you get paid to do it. Which would be…?” He shook his head and clasped his hands together. “Amazing. Hey, you never said. Does this whole job offer idea come with
me
getting a job?”

“You didn’t ask,” Henry said. “Get me that resume and we’ll talk.”

“Fair enough.”

“Are you serious about this, Chief?” Blondie asked, her expression showing exactly what she felt. Disdain.

Paige knew what was going on here. This was their turf. Working on the strange and occult, that made them special. In comes someone, a big name with nothing else standing behind her, wanting a piece of their action?

Well, if the cat really was out of the bag, there was no sense in keeping everything a big secret. Was there?

Taking in shallow breaths, she smiled and called to the air, feeding it with her playfulness. It gobbled it up like a starving child.
What do you want us to do?
the air asked.

Play.

She pointed her attention to Blondie’s hair.

A wind picked up, flinging papers everywhere. The air tugged on Blondie’s hair, slipping it this way and that.

Blondie kept her cool, blue gaze settled on Paige.

How boring. Paige redirected her focus to Mr. Light Eyes.

His purple tie beat against his face.

He flung himself back, flailing at the thing as if it was possessed.

“Enough,” Dexx murmured.

Paige sighed and released the air.

The wind died down with an almost audible mew of disappointment.

Mr. Frumpy sat glued to the back of his chair, his mouth open, his eyes wide, his arms splayed.

Mr. Light Eyes frowned, brushing his tie back in place, standing behind his chair.

Ms. Kick-Ass rose from the corner of the desk and faced Paige directly, her head tipped to the side, her long, wavy, luxurious hair flowing over her shoulder.

Paige was a little jealous of that hair. Holy buckets!

Ms. Blondie stood and put her hands on her hips, her right hand sliding comfortably on the hilt of her gun.

Paige raised an eyebrow. “Not bragging or anything, but, uh, I do add a kind of flavor to the investigation you’re all lacking.”

Blondie raised her chin.

Kick-Ass pressed her full lips together.

“Unless one of you is hiding something.” Paige licked her lips. “Shapeshifters? Any of you?”

Dexx raised his hand.

Paige rolled her eyes internally. “Witches?”

He urged her to raise her hand.

She gave her head a slight shake. “Vampires?”

Frumpy turned concerned eyes to his partners, a look of confused concern racing along the wrinkles of his expression.

“No? Are any of you a demon?” Paige dropped her tone on the last word to bring an air of spook to it. “No? Hmm.”