Whiskey Witches, F.J. Blooding [ap literature book list .TXT] 📗

It always came down to that. Paige rolled her eyes, gritting her teeth.

Dexx shifted under her. “My legs are asleep.” His soft murmur filtered through her ear like a warm caress. “I think we need to get up.”

She rolled off of him so he could get up unhindered. “Actually, I could use a walk. What about anyone else?”

Dexx rose to his feet, grabbing his worn assault boots.

“I’ve been driving for two days straight.” Tru let his head fall back, his shoulders bunched forward. “If I don’t sit down again for a month, it’ll be too soon.”

“A walk could be good.” Alma flicked her multi-colored gaze to Dexx.

Paige pretended to pay attention to her shoes.

Dexx opened his palms.

Alma raised her eyebrows inquiringly, then chucked her chin in Paige’s direction.

Anger flashed across his features. He jabbed a finger toward Paige while the other hand went to his head. He shrugged, his eyes demanding.

Alma glared at him for a long, silent moment before the bite dropped out of her gaze. She turned to Paige. “How are you doing, Nut?”

Hurt flashed in Paige’s chest as she headed for the door without a word to the woman.

They all trooped out of the inn toward the lake. Trees sheltered them from the wind that tossed the branches. The grass was full and lush beneath their feet. The afternoon sun hid behind a dark storm. The choppy water of the lake lapped against the sandy shore with little slurping sounds. Paige led them toward the tree-line. No insects, no birds. Just them and the rising wind.

“Looks like it’s about to rain,” Alma said, keeping pace with Paige.

“I don’t want to disagree. I might wind up forgetting about it.” She wasn’t sure what else to answer. The sharp edge had been removed with time, but that didn’t mean everything was okay. It wasn’t. If she had to work with her grandmother, she would and she could, but chit-chat? A heart-to-heart? She wasn’t ready for that yet.

“Our situation is more serious than a simple murder investigation.” Dexx kicked a rock. “And another thought hit me as I read the police files yesterday. How much of what happened three years ago was fate, and how much of it was careful maneuvering?”

Alma shot him a sharp look. “Maneuvering for what?”

He shoved his fists in his pockets. “To get her out of commission.”

“Explain.”

“It’s no secret. Rachel had no case. She shouldn’t have been able to take Leah in the first place. She wasn’t in the same state. She had no motive, no proof.”

Tru’s pale eyebrows shot up. “So you’re saying Rachel’s a bitch because some demon made her do it? No-no. That woman is Satan.”

Paige ran her fingernails along her greasy scalp. She needed a shower. “He might take offense to that.”

“Oh my god.” Tru held his hands out to her, his knees bent. “You would know. You would totally know. Can you ask him? You know, as a personal favor to me, because I could use that as ammunition the next time that crazy, psychotic bitch decides she wants to tear down my wife.”

Paige bit both her lips. As much as her heart twinged at the thought of Leslie being torn down by that woman, it also felt a bit nice to know she wouldn’t be alone.

Dexx meandered to a tree and plucked idly at the rough bark. “Think about it. What happened without Paige to watch over the demon population, to keep them in check? They could have invested themselves into politics, into religion, into the press.”

“You could start a website with that.” Tru kicked off his flip-flops and toed the sand. “No. Wait. I’m pretty sure there are already about a dozen of them. Did you drink the Kool-Aid?”

“Balnore warned us Leah could be used against her. We just didn’t think they’d use her own family to do it.”

Paige didn’t think of Rachel as family. She only saw her as the one who had abandoned her then took her only child.

Alma’s eyes narrowed. “Balnore’s here?”

Paige nodded. “Yes.”

“You’re talking to demons,” Alma said. Her voice inched toward accusation.

“He’s a demon who was kicked out of Hell,” Dexx said, his pointer finger raised.

Tru’s expression widened in disbelief. “No way.”

Dexx opened his arms and shrugged an affirmative.

Tru threw his head back, laughing. “That’s rich. How do you get kicked out of Hell?”

Paige kept her gaze on her grandmother, assessing how the older woman would react to the knowledge she was practicing again.

“I have so gotta meet this guy,” Tru said with a grin. “There’s a demon that might not scare the piss out of me. I’m excited!”

Alma planted her feet, squaring off with Dexx. “Do you really think there’s a greater plan here than just a few murders?”

“Yes. I do. What if someone found out about her gift back then? Too many things happened at the same time. Rachel? The Pilmner case? And am I the only one who’s realized the killer here in St. Francisville is using the same symbols from that case?”

“In my defense,” Paige said quietly as she reviewed her newly returned memories, “my knowledge of even the existence of that case had been blocked.”

Tru flailed one hand, the corners of his mouth drawn down comically. “Good defense. What was special about the Pilmner case?”

“A man lost his wife and two kids to a drunk driver. They caught the driver, but let him go due to evidence tampering. People had been bought off. He was a high-up in the ranking, government. The press didn’t even cover his involvement.”

Alma’s wrinkled lips pressed tight, her shoulders hunched.

“He figured out how to sacrifice people to summon a demon. It’s very hard to do, but he succeeded somehow. Probably used it for the cover-up. But when he released the demon, the leash broke and the demon raised others who then wreaked havoc all over the city.”

“And you, young lady,” Alma added, “then decided to summon demons to be released on the city in search of those demons.”

“The difference, Grandma,” Paige said, her voice sharp as she daggered the old witch with her gaze, “was that mine were under my control.”

“As they destroyed innocent lives all over town.”

“There’s one thing you can bet.” Paige advanced on her grandmother, her jaw clenched. “If a demon went after a person, they weren’t innocent. They were either guilty of something or had planned something truly horrific.”

Dexx took a step back, one hand out. “Thought crime. You’re talking about thought crime?”

“No. Demons don’t exist only in this time. Hell is…it’s the future, the past, the present. They see the damage people can inflict.”

“There were children, not guilty yet,” Alma yelled.

“Ignorance doesn’t make someone less evil, Grandma. I’ve seen what ‘children’ can do to people. They’re almost worse because they don’t understand the concept of consequences.”

“I can’t believe I’m listening to this.” Alma covered her ears with her gnarled fingers. “You’re defending them? The demons? Against children.”

“I believe they had a reason for what they did.”

“They’re evil.”

“More evil than Rachel? So evil they would take someone’s memories? It just means you haven’t accepted the true ugliness of humanity yet.”

“And you have?”

A worn sense of knowing filled Paige’s heart. The anger, and all the energy it brought, dissipated. “Yes.”

Tru’s eyes darted between the two Whiskey women. “Okay. So, what do we have in St. Francisville? What’s the great plan here? Why’d they need her wobbly and dysfunctional?”

Paige could always count on Tru to defuse a Whiskey emotion-bomb. After spending the last thirteen years with Alma, Leslie, two kids, Paige and Leah for a short time, and Rachel for an even shorter time, the man was practically a saint.

“Lucius,” Dexx said simply.

Alma sucked in her cheeks, her lips pursed, then dragged her attention to the hunter, allowing herself to be defused. Her demeanor said she wasn’t done yet. “What is he?”

“The guardian to the Gate of Hell,” Paige said. “Born a man, given life eternal if he guarded the Gate.”

Alma slid her good eye Paige’s way.

“He was killed here about a hundred years ago. I’m sort of connecting with him. It’s my guess, the killer needs Lucius’ soul to either open or power the key so he can open the gate.”

“To what end?”

“It really depends on who