Whiskey Witches, F.J. Blooding [ap literature book list .TXT] 📗
- Author: F.J. Blooding
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She pulled her black cloak tighter around her. Her earth-bound form did not feel chill or heat, was unfazed by a strong wind. She felt the energy, the tug towards darkness. Her demon heart froze in fear.
Paige barely had enough sense of self to realize she wasn’t the demon. It felt like it, though. The sights. The smells. She saw them. She smelled them.
A pentacle had been drawn in salt in the short, spring grass nearby. Candles lit each point of the star. A small cauldron was reigned in the center.
Witch, the voice from earlier said.
Fear overtook her. She turned to run, to flee.
Soul-fire burned the side of her face.
She staggered backward. A magickal ward glistened in the air directly in front of her. The witch.
Wait. What witch?
Trapped.
Trapped by what? And why?
Protect it.
Protect what?
Something gleamed in the grass. An old and twisted knot-work of metal lay on the ground. Weak energy shot from it like the light of a distant star. The key.
The key. The thought took hold her mind like claws and gripped her tight. The key. Protect the key!
Hands grabbed her. Warm. Soft.
Real.
She was stuck in the memory. A demon tied to the earth. She couldn’t move. This wasn’t her world. This wasn’t her dimension. She belonged somewhere else, not here. The witch and the angel had chained her to this spot, helpless to keep the gates closed. She had to find a way out, had to get away. She had—
A slap across the face brought her back to reality.
This reality.
Her reality.
Paige sat sideways in the passenger seat of Chief White’s unmarked car. The door was open and he was on one knee in the dirt, a hand on her arm, supporting her. He stared up at her with concern.
Bile rose in her mouth. She shoved him out of the way, collapsing on her hands and knees, retching. She heaved until nothing was left. Smoke rose from the spilled contents of her stomach and the stagnant smell of sulfur penetrated her nostrils.
She wiped her mouth with a shaking hand. What the fuck just happened?
Paige pulled herself back into the passenger seat of the car.
Sulfur.
Demons. It had to be demons. Right? What did she need to protect against that?
Shit. She didn’t know. Understanding symbols was one thing, but the Whiskeys did not to deal with demons.
Real demons.
Had to be. Right? The vision? Throwing up sulfur?
Had she just been possessed?
Crap! What would Sam and Dean do? The Winchester boys always had a plan.
On TV. Where they would throw out some really crazy ideas, go so far as to actually kill their two main leads off, and then bring them back. Sometimes, literally, from Hell.
No. Supernatural and Hollywood weren’t going to help her. She didn’t have anyone who would bring her back from Hell.
She could call Leslie. Maybe her sister would know something. She’d been practicing magick a lot longer than Paige had.
Has she? Are you sure?
That wasn’t the demon’s voice.
That had come from somewhere deep inside her. The question didn’t even make sense. She was just thrown off center because of the demon. Great. She couldn’t even trust her own mind.
Who else could she call? She ignored the obvious response.
Dexx. He was a demon hunter. He’d been by a few times in the last five years, working on cases in the Denver area. They’d become fairly decent friends in the past few years, but he’d remained distant.
Still. Maybe she should call him.
She got to her feet and stumbled.
“What happened back there?” White stood away from the smoking vomit, his face pinched in concern. Suspicion? Possibly both.
“I don’t know.” It was the best answer she had. Magickal crap happened to the others in her family. Not to her. This was totally new territory.
Was it new?
Of course it was. She shook off that errant thought.
“I’m taking you to the clinic. I’ll call Dr. McCormik. Let him know to stay there a little longer.”
She shook her head. The world spun, making her stomach lurch. “Why?”
“He’s the coroner?”
And the doc. Small town. “No. I’m—I’m fine.” She really wasn’t. “I just need sleep.” And to call Dexx who would understand this. She didn’t need someone running tests. They would come back normal. Right?
What if sulfur showed up in the blood? It had been in her stomach. How would she explain that away? She couldn’t
“I’m having the doctor check you out.”
“No,” she said forcefully. She took in a deep, steadying breath and gave him her full attention. “Look, Chief, the truth is, I’d just gotten off a long night before I got on the plane. The flight wasn’t that comfortable. Had a chatty guy sitting next to me the whole way and a bratty kid in front of me. The drive was long. The heat is getting to me. I just need sleep.”
His flattened lips and set jaw said he wasn’t buying it.
She wasn’t either, but she couldn’t afford to go to the clinic and have her blood drawn. She didn’t know how to alter tests or how to get them thrown out or messed up. She didn’t have those kinds of contacts. She had never needed them before.
Are you sure?
What the fuck was that? Her voice? Again?
Of course she was sure. She remembered her entire fucking life.
Really? What about the five years that’s missing?
Paige blinked.
White narrowed his eyes.
What was going on?
Ask yourself. Why are you the only Whiskey without a gift?
White stepped around the door. “What’s going on?” he asked quietly.
There was nothing to say.
“I know your family’s history. And my momma had a touch of the gift herself.” He licked his bottom lip, ducking his head. “She’d get that same look on her face sometimes, too. You saw something.”
Paige swallowed. She couldn’t admit to it. She’d lose all credibility. This wasn’t the same world where spells were baked into cookies. This was the world where all of that was child’s play bordering on make-believe.
He glanced over her head. “You did see something. What was it?”
She shook her head. She barely knew him.
His brown eyes met hers and held them with a steely gaze. “Tell me what you saw and I’ll take you to your room.”
Bad idea. “Something from the past. I think.” She clamped her jaw shut. What was she thinking?
He could be an ally.
Why did it suddenly feel as if she had two personalities battling inside her?
Maybe you do. And this one has been buried for… five…long…years.
Jesus fucking shit.
White nodded, his expression earnest. “Okay. What else? What happened?”
Tell him.
No! “I was a demon sent to Earth to protect mankind.”
“From what?”
“Themselves? There was a witch and an angel?” She shook her head, recalling the vision, terrified it might overtake her again. “I didn’t see them, though.”
“Interesting.”
“And a… special key. There was a key I had to protect.”
“What was this key to?”
She didn’t remember if the demon said in the vision or not, but she knew. She just knew. “The Gate of Hell.”
White closed his eyes for a brief moment and then reopened them. “The key to the Gates of Hell is here? In my parish?”
“Gate. As in singular.”
“And that’s in St. Francisville, too?” he asked incredulously.
“I—” She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Was there anything else?”
She pressed shaking fingers to her lips. “The demon that got me? He’s trapped. In that shack.”
White’s face paled. He straightened and turned to stare at the shack, eyes wide. “Should I be
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