whiskey witches 01 - whisky witches (35 page)

“No!” Balnore held up both hands, his eye wide. “No.”

“But if it worked,” Paige said, “there shouldn’t be an issue.”

“I feel as though you’re not pulling me into you. I didn’t say I didn’t feel the need to possess you. I simply have better control over it. The brands are still whole. They’re still working.”

Paige pinched the bridge of her nose. “How do I fix that?”

“I don’t know, Peanut.”

“Well,” Dexx said, gesturing to the demon with one had. “What have you been doing?”

“Gathering information. Since the globe doesn’t work right now, I decided this would be the best use of my skills.”

Feeling useless wasn’t something Paige was used to. “What did you learn? Is everyone still here? Or have they left?”

“They’re still here. If anything, there are more of them now. Angels and demons. And talking to them didn’t help. Everyone’s confused. They don’t know why there’s a surge in power, who the major players are, or what’s going on.”

“Then why are they here?” Paige asked.

“Because this is where they were summoned to.”

Paige blinked. “Summoned?”

Balnore raised a hand, dipping his head to the side.

“I didn’t summon them.”

“Someone else did.”

“There’s someone else like Paige?” Dexx asked.

“No.” Balnore folded his hands in front of him and leaned against the door. “At least, not likely. There is only one like her in every generation.”

Dexx’s closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m getting really bad Buffy flashbacks. What if she dies? Is another awakened? What if she’s possessed, thrown into the back of her own mind? Is that enough to bring another demon summoner into play?”

“Dexx. Sometimes, your mind gives me a headache.”

“Sometimes, it gives me one, too.”

“I got Jones to confess,” Paige said. “But they wouldn’t give Sven up. I don’t know where the key is. I don’t know where he is. I only know they were able to shove all the guardians into the fragment they have.”

“The guardians?” Balnore asked, his expression stone. “Where is Lucius?”

“He was in jail, but he walked right out.”

“How?”

Paige licked her lips then bit down on them as she struggled to find the words to explain what had happened. “He has the earth magick from me, so the demon traps don’t work.”

“Do you think he summoned everyone?” Dexx asked.

“They’ve been gathering for a while,” Balnore said, his eyes narrowed on Paige.

She shriveled under his gaze. “What about Malika or Jones?”

“Anyone can summon. But, no, I don’t think they’re the ones. Whoever it is, can summon almost as well as Paige.”

“Almost as well as I used to.”

Dexx ran his hands over his head. “Who are the players? This is so frustrating.”

Paige massaged her temple. “Jones is connected to angels, but he’s not a Nephilim.”

“He would not be,” Balnore said. “No. We keep a close eye on all Nephilim.”

Dexx paced three steps, turned and paced back. “How do you figure out he was attached to angels?”

“He said that he wanted to open the Gate to Heaven.” She winced. “But he can also track the movements of demons? Who can do that besides summoners?”

“Other demons,” Dexx said.

“Angels,” Balnore added.

“Great.” She clipped her gun onto her belt. “I need some air.”

“And what about tonight?” Dexx stepped into her path, meeting her gaze. “They’re going to try and kill you tonight.”

“When they spring the trap, we’ll be ready.”

Dexx raised his face to the ceiling. “Really? How? We don’t have a plan. We don’t have anything laid down. We have nothing.”

“Fine. When they spring the trap, we’ll have a plan.” Which was her way of saying they were fucked. She had no idea what they could do and no clue what they should be preparing for.

All she knew was that if that was her last night, she wanted to breathe some fresh air before she died.

Rawr.

S
HE MADE HER
way to the lake, watching the waves lap against the beach. She needed something more than a plan. They needed a way to win. With broken toys and broken weapons and no information, though, she had no idea how they’d make that happen.

She stooped, picked up a fairly flat rock, and threw it at the lake.

It plopped loudly and sank.

“You’re doing it wrong.”

She hadn’t even heard him come up behind her. “Dexx.”

He ran his fingers along her arm.

She took a step away. That wasn’t what she needed. She needed a level head. She needed a way out of this mess. He didn’t provide that. Yes. She trusted him with her life, but that didn’t mean he was the best thing for her in a situation like this. Those fingers felt too good along her skin, making her crave more. The warmth he offered. The feeling of comfort. Safety.

What a joke. Safety. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

He pushed a rock into the palm of her right hand, laying his fingers around her waist. “First, you’ve got to loosen up,” he murmured in her ear.

Ripples of desire shivered over her. “Dexx. Now is really the wrong time.”

“Yes. Because the world is going to end, so finding solace is always the wrong thing. Shut up.” He moved her hips from side to side. “Relax.”

She smiled, unable to help herself. She felt silly moving as he directed. Well, following someone else’s direction period felt odd and out of place. “What if I don’t want to?”

He stilled behind her. The tip of his nose ran along her neck. “All I’m doing is showing you how to skip a stone.”

Her skin sizzled where he touched her. “Right.”

His hot breath filtered through her hair, warming the back of her neck.

All she wanted to do was to turn around, grab his head, and claim his lips. She wanted to taste him, touch him, devour him.

“Paige.”

No. She broke from his embrace. “The wind’s too high. You can’t skip on this water anyway.”

He cocked an eyebrow and threw his stone. It skipped twice on the broken water and then disappeared.

“What are—”

Dexx’s phone blared, “Warning. Warning. An idiot is trying to call you. Pick up the phone. An idiot is trying to call you. Warning.”

Paige chuckled and walked away.

“Hey. Did you do it? Great. Hold on.” He stopped Paige and handed her the phone. “Here.”

“What?” She took it, but wasn’t quite sure what she was supposed to do with it. Obviously, talk, but to who and why?

He waved at her with a quit-asking-questions expression and headed down the beach.

She put the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Nick.”

How long had she spoken to him? Years. Right after Leah was born, they’d started talking to one another again. They’d actually developed a pretty good relationship. He’d decided to go into law, so they’d had things to talk about.

But after her memories were banished, she hadn’t remembered she had a reason to call him. Guilt slammed into her like an anvil.

“How’re you doing?”

She smiled through the painful embarrassment. “I’ve been better. You?”

“I’m doing good, doin’ good.”

“I, uh, heard you got a job with a big law firm.” What she really needed to say was sorry. Sorry for forgetting about him. Sorry for trying to kill his mother. Sorry for abandoning him. Sorry for forgetting his birthday for the past three years.

“Yeah.” His cheerful tone sounded forced. “I got the job about a year ago.”

“Oh. Right. Yeah. Time flies.” Lame. So lame.

“Hey, don’t sweat it. I hear you’ve had your hands full with detective stuff and then having your mind wiped clean.”

“Did you know about it?”

“Leslie told me. I didn’t completely agree with it, but what could I do, you know? It’s not like I have any pull and you couldn’t call or stop by anyway, so . . .” He trailed off.

“How is she?”

“Leah?” The tight constriction of forced enjoyment disappeared and became more natural. “She’s doing great. We’re out shopping for ice cream. I had a sudden craving for mint chocolate chip.”

Paige chuckled. “I like Starbuck’s Coffee Almond, myself. But I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Oh,” he said, his voice pained. “Going for the expensive stuff. Well, Leah and I are sharing and she’s too young for coffee.”

Paige could hear a girl laugh in the background and a muffled, “Am not.”

“Here,” he said. “Would you like to talk to her?”

“Sure.” Hope flared painfully in her chest. “Hey, Nick.”

“Yeah.”

She turned her back to Dexx’s retreating form, her voice small. “What do I say?”

He was quiet for a short moment and she began to feel stupid. She was Leah’s mother. How wouldn’t she know what to talk about?

“She’s into soccer and My Little Ponies. You get her talking about either of those topics, and you won’t have to talk. You’ll just be forced to listen forever and ever and ever—Ow! You little twerp.” He laughed. “Here. Talk to your mom.”

Paige waited anxiously until her daughter’s voice came on the line. “Momma?”

“Leah.” Paige’s eyes filled with tears and her throat tightened. Joy surged through her, filling every empty void she hadn’t realized existed. Leah’s voice had changed. It was lower now, more mature. Her voice. Leah’s . . . voice. It felt so good, so good to hear it. A thousand questions rushed to the surface. “Oh my god, Boo. How are you?”

“I’m good,” Leah said. “Uncle Nick’s taking me to get ice cream. So. I’m really good.”

A ghost of a laugh escaped. “What have you been up to lately? I want to hear everything.”

“Oh, stuff.”

“Like what kind of stuff? Have you learned anything in school?”

“Not really,” Leah said. “We mostly review stuff I already know.”

Paige snorted. “Nick said you were playing soccer.”

Paige listened as Leah went on and on about soccer, and all the girls she played with, and the last game she’d played. Each word fell on her heart, warming something so cold she thought it would never melt. She blinked back the tears when her brother said they had to go.

“Boo,” Paige called.

“Yeah, Momma.”

“I love you,” she said softly.

“Yeah, okay.”

Paige’s heart twisted, but what did she think? That a little girl was going to keep on loving someone who wasn’t a part of her life, who never called, never showed up? No.

Leah was quiet for a minute. Paige thought she handed the phone off, but then her voice came through, smaller this time. “I miss you. Why’d you disappear? Why didn’t you fight?”

Paige wanted to tell her everything, but she was a kid. She didn’t need to hear all the horror. She didn’t need all the details. “It’s a really long story.”

“I don’t care.”

“I know. When we have more time, I’ll try to explain.”

“Whatever that means.”

“I miss you, Boo,” Paige whispered through the pain of knowing the phone call was about to end, that the darkness would come back, the ice would take over again. “I love you with every bone in my body.”

“Okay. Well, ’bye.”

“’Bye.”

She held the phone away from her ear, ready to hang up until she heard her brother’s voice come through. She put it back to her ear, swallowing the lump in her throat. “Hello?”

“Hey,” he said. “I need your cell phone number so I can call you more often. I doubt you’re going to let that pain-in-the-ass hang around all the time.”

Paige snorted and wished she hadn’t. The few tears that had sprung from her eyes had goobered up her nose. “You knew he was a pain and you still sent him?”

“He’s a great person repellant, so I thought he might work as a demon repellant, too.” He waited. “You never know. It might’ve worked.”

Paige smiled. She could hear the checkout counter dinging. “All right. Well, um, I’ll talk to you later. I’ve got your number and I’ll text you. I don’t think you’ve got a pen handy to write down my number.”

“Uh, no,” he said simply. “’Sides, I lose paper all the time. Hey, we gotta go before Mom gets nervous. She doesn’t like us being out too long.”

“Short leash?”

He snorted. “Something like that. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Yeah. Talk to you later.”

She stood there, the phone in her hand, feeling more than a little shell shocked. The edges were going blurry and the light had gone out on the screen where Nick’s name still sat. She wasn’t ready for the light to go off, for his name to disappear. She’d heard her daughter’s voice. She’d heard her daughter talk about her life. Paige’s arms ached with emptiness. Her soul begged for more, to call Nick back, to just get one more minute on the phone with Leah. Just a little longer.

Dexx wrapped her in his arms, holding her close. “You’ll get to see her again. And you’re going to get her back.”

She turned and buried her tears in his chest. She hoped so. She wished with everything she had. Her life would have to change. She wouldn’t be able to chase after demons any more. Three years ago had proved that. But . . .

She needed her daughter. She was incomplete without her.

And next time, no one was going to use Leah against her.