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

Alma smashed her wrinkled lips shut and crossed her arms over her full chest.

“You’ve got the best intentions. I understand that. However.” He shrugged at her, his mouth shut, his eyebrows raised.

Alma’s eerie white gaze penetrated him.

He licked his lips. “And, um, Alma?”

She relaxed her arms a smidge.

“Get sunglasses.” Dexx threw her a tight smile and stepped onto the unwelcoming concrete porch.

Paige sat on a masonry block leaning against the side of the building, a plume of smoke issuing from her mouth in the chilled air.

“I know I didn’t bring those.” Dexx closed the door behind him.

She pointed with her chin, her eyes brown and vacant.

The rain cascaded off the roof, creating a curtain.

Andy stood at the far end of the long porch inside the wall of water, a cigarette in his shaking fingers. He hunched his shoulders and pressed himself into the wall, away from Paige.

“Hey, Andy,” Dexx called. “How much for the entire pack?”

Andy dug the cigarettes out of his pocket and tossed them to Dexx. He fled inside the building.

Dexx took in a deep breath and walked over toward Paige. He thumped a cigarette out of the pack, and held his other hand out.

Paige gave him the lighter and took the pack from him. “Didn’t know you smoked.”

“Don’t.” He lit up and let out the smoke with a choked cough. “Not since I started hunting.” He gave her back the lighter. “Seemed appropriate though. Been one hell of a day.”

She nodded and lit another.

“You going to do anything stupid?”

Her cold and apathetic expression didn’t shift as she ignored him.

“Besides chain smoke, of course, because this—” He held his cigarette out. “—could kill you.”

“I don’t care.”

Dexx leaned against the wall, studying her. Smoke in. Smoke out. He shifted his attention to the falling rain. A car drove past, pushing water in its wake. “‘Course you do. You can’t keep on like this, you know.”

Paige’s lips curled in a flinch of derision.

He grimaced at his cigarette. The nicotine felt good as it hit his system, but it tasted like ass. He lifted his eyebrows and took another drag. “Want to tell me what happened back there?”

“Where?”

“In the basement. With your grandmother.”

She blinked and her expression softened minutely. She let out a puff of smoke and leaned her head against the siding of the church. “Nope.”

“What did you do to Alma? Did you intend to hurt her?”

Paige sucked in her top lip and bit down on it. “I don’t know.”

Dexx tossed his cigarette out into the rain and knelt beside her. “I kinda know what you’re going through.” He took her cold hand in his much warmer one. “I mean, when my brother—” Who was he kidding? “You know, what I went through doesn’t even compare to what you did.”

Paige’s fingers fluttered under his. “Hurt is hurt.”

He met her chocolate brown gaze. “Yeah, I guess it is, and I hurt a lot. I felt—I don’t know, ashamed because I didn’t help enough, like I’d let him down. He’d needed me.”

“Yeah. Leah needed me, too. I was so stupid.”

“So was I. I was so damned mad. I couldn’t see straight, couldn’t think straight, and it didn’t matter what anyone told me, whether it was my mom, or Nick, or—” He whispered, “Rachel.”

Paige took in a deep breath and slid her attention to the rain. “I keep forgetting you were practically raised in her house.”

“Not really. Just after my dad left. Nick took me in like a stray dog.”

“I feel alone.”

Dexx bit the inside of his lip. “Are you? Or did you isolate yourself?”

She crushed the butt of her cigarette at her feet. “At first, I felt safer on my own. Now, I just feel alone.”

He gave her fingers a squeeze. “Then don’t be.”

He watched her teeter on the edge; the edge of icy apathy and blazing fury.

He knew that edge. He’d walked it before. “Things aren’t gonna get better, not for a while. Those years without her are lost. You’ll never get them back.”

Tears studded her eyes like silent screams attempting escape.

“You can get her back,” he said. “You won’t ever have those years again, but you can have others.”

“What if I can’t? What if I’ve screwed this up beyond salvaging?”

“You still gotta fight. You’re trying to tell me you can’t fight? You?”

She extricated her hand from his and rolled the pack of cigarettes between her palms. “For a while now, its felt like something inside me broke. I didn’t know what it was, didn’t know how to fix it. I thought I was unlovable, but now I know.”

“Know what? If you’re playing something your mother said in your head, stop it. Cease and desist. Immediately. That woman has no business being a part of your life. She has no right in what you think or do. And you should never, ever, ever pay attention to anything she says.”

She closed her eyes for a long moment then opened them again.

“I know what you’re doing. You’re replaying memories long forgotten, re-remembering the shit she fed you. Stop. She wanted to destroy you. She succeeded, not because you’re inferior or deserved it, but because she surprised you by stooping to a level you never thought possible.”

“That’s—” She massaged her temple. “That’s true, but I don’t know how to put it back together again.”

“Me either.” He got up and dragged her to her feet. “We’ll find a way, though. I promise. You are one tough nut and I…”

Her gaze rose to meet his.

His hand shook with the intensity of his conviction. “I believe in you. You can do anything you set your mind to.”

She pressed her lips together as the rain fell. Minutes passed. She nodded.

He led the way down the long hall into the worship room. “Hey, guys,” Dexx called. “Time to get out of here. We’ve got a long road ahead of us. Let’s get going.”

Worry highlighted Reece’s his blue eyes as he assessed Paige. “Do you think it’s safe? She should rest.”

“She’ll be fine,” Alma said, her back ram-rod straight as she stared at her granddaughter. “She’s a Whiskey.”

Paige didn’t acknowledge as she strode toward the door.

“Well, we can’t let her leave without us.” Dexx grabbed his duffle bag. He paused on the front porch, the small roof shielding him from the rain. “We’re going to get wet. Great.”

“I was summoned.” Balnore squint up at the storm. “I could use a ride.”

“This just gets better and better.” Dexx dug the keys out of his pocket. “Padre, I hope you’re staying here, ‘cause this boat’s full.”

“No, no.” Reece stood in the doorway and gazed on the two demons with something of mixed respect and fear. He advanced on Alma.

“I hope we can stay closer in-touch, Alma” Father Reece said, holding her one hand in both of his.

“I believe I can accommodate, Reece.”

Dexx glanced at the old man. “Well, thanks for the help. I’ll try to keep us on the winning side.”

“I’m sure you will.” The priest shook his head. “Never lose faith in the Lord.”

Dexx took in a deep breath as the rain slackened minutely…or not. “You, either. A lot of people are out there who depend on you.”

“And you, my son.”

Dexx sighed and stepped into the drizzle. “Don’t call me son.”