Whiskey Storm (Whiskey Witches Midnight Rising Book 1)

by F. J. Blooding

“That’s it.” Rainbow poked a finger toward Dexx excitedly. “You said add more color.”

  Was she only listening to the words she wanted? “Yup. Words paint pictures so I know what you did. So on this report, on Tuesday the twenty-fourth, you red at location— I’m calling it periwinkle—and green detailed description. Is that how it happened? Exactly as it happened?”

  A grin split Rainbow’s face.

  “You could face an internal investigation if you left out any of the brown, but don’t forget grey. I know red is still important, though.”

  Rainbow sat in the chair across from the desk. “These don’t matter. How many times did you say we weren’t really bound by the mundane’s laws?”

  Dexx nodded. That was before he had the hot seat. “You’re right. We have a different set of laws, but it’s inside the mundane law.” Wait. That sounded familiar. Hadn’t Paige said something like that?

  Hattie, nodded. Yes, cub. She told you almost exactly in those words. His spirit animal was bored out of her skull, and not happy about it.

  Well, shit. Who asked you anyway?

  Hattie returned to her boredom, her spirit form rolling over and batting at imaginary butterflies.

  Life had decidedly become less exciting since he had the reins. Why had Paige and Tony had to leave? Oh yeah, they either moved on or were forced out.

  “Come on, Bo. Please, for the sake of my sanity and your safety, use complete sentences and descriptions. You don’t have to write an encyclopedia but make a complete statement.”

  Rainbow sat in her chair with her hands pressed between her knees and just smiled expectantly.

  He tilted his head. “Something you want to add?” He waited for something, anything, but Rainbow just smiled. “’Bo?”

  Nothing.

  “Hey.” He rapped his knuckles on the desk.

  Rainbow jumped a little and blinked rapidly as though waking up. “Huh, what happened?”

  Dexx let his head fall. Sometimes, it was like talking to a child. “Can you please start using words on your reports? Personally, I don’t care if you use different ink to make it mean more to you but write words. Real words.”

  Rainbow nodded vigorously with that smile plastered to her face. “Sure, boss. Full assimilation.”

  “Are you… okay?” Dexx couldn’t have Rainbow flaking. She was the little sister of the whole department. And she was the best detective they had. Better than Michelle, or Tarik. If she flaked, they would all suffer.

  “Oh, I’m fine. I just got lost in your eyes.”

  Dexx couldn’t tell if she was exaggerating or serious. “Sometimes I just want to throttle you.”

  “Why?” She looked as vacant as a deer in the headlights.

  “So I can use your neck to warm my hands up.”

  “Actually, if they’re cold you can just stick them in your pits. It’s really okay if you shower. They won’t stink or anything.”

  Dexx dropped his head. “I’m going to kill whoever you learned that from.”

  Wide-eyed innocence answered. “Learned what from?”

  “‘Bo, go back to your desk before you leave on a stretcher.”

  “Kay, boss. Anything else I can help you with?”

  “Find a store with all the color pens, then buy them.”

  “I bet I can do that before you can.”

  “It’s a race.” Dexx showed teeth. She’d probably think he smiled.

  Rainbow popped out of her chair and flung the door open, then jumped back with a squeak when she saw a person with a hand raised to knock.

  She slipped past Mario Kester, his nearly white hair smoothed back, his bright blue eyes piercing.

  Fuck. What did that asshat want? Sounded good in his head, so… “What the fuck do you want, asshat?”

  Mario didn’t even flinch. “Charming as ever, Colt,” he said with his slight English accent. “I came by to see how things are going.”

  “Things are going smashingly. That’s how you say that, right? Smashingly?”

  “I think the word you’re looking for is bollocks. It’s a steaming pile of bollocks, and you’ve got to take a big bite from it.” Mario took the seat Rainbow vacated, but he leaned back, almost lounging.

  He didn’t even ask. Limey bastich. “I’m pretty sure it might be closer to ‘You’ve bollocksed up my day.’”

  Mario’s eye tightened a fraction. “Too right. But I didn’t come out here for a lesson in language usage.”

  “And there goes the rest of the day.” Dexx collected the pile of papers and tapped them together in a neat stack, turning the top page over so Mario couldn’t read it. Not that he’d get much, since Rainbow had only colored in boxes. Mario didn’t need to know that, though.

  “I come with an offer. No games, no hidden hooks. That’s how you say it, right?”

  What was he talking about? “I’m sure there’s plenty of fine print you’ll forget to share.”

  “Clean offer. My people were very impressed with your performance under my leadership when you helped us. We’d like you to come be an apprentice seeker.”

  They’d teamed up to take down a very large foe. One time. It’d been a one-time deal. Also, he hadn’t been working for Mario. Dixx’d been saving that man’s life. “Seeker?” Dexx leaned back, tapping his lip with a pen. “Apprentice? You fish and chip turds are the apprentices if anyone is.”

  “Over here, you call yourselves hunters. Not really the best descriptor since you don’t eat what you kill.”

  This guy really knew how to get under Dexx’s skin. He didn’t know what it was about him. The sleezy tone, the calm as fuck body language, or that sneer. Dexx just wanted to punch him in his smug face. “But seeker is so much better? Find, but don’t kill? I think I like hunter better.”

  “Call it what you will. Hunter, seeker, doesn’t matter. We want you to work for us. Oh, I’m sure this place will be here to check in on in between missions.”

  This guy really wanted Dexx—a shifter—to work for DoDO who looked down on his kind? “Have you looked around lately? Things between my people— our people and you are a bit strained.”

  “What if they didn’t have to be? If you remember, one call from me can make things quite warm for you.” Mario shrugged with a hand. “Or they can be comfortable. We have a surprising amount of pull with your president.”

  “This is your clean offer? Innuendo and veiled threats? You’ve really got to read more books about selling yourself. ‘Cause what you’re doing here—” Dexx swirled his hand in the air, “—isn’t the way to do it.” He stood and leaned on his knuckles. “Counteroffer. You get the hell out of my office and keep going until you get of town, or I’m going to let Hattie eat what she kills.”

  Mario stood, staring Dexx in the eyes, and slipped his hand into his jacket pocket. He pulled a card out and slid it across the desk.

  Dexx didn’t twitch. He leaned on his desk and brought Hattie out a bit, enough to change his features and turn his eyes a flame green.

  “Charming.” Mario didn’t rush from the office, but he didn’t take his time either. He shut the door behind him.

  Dexx pushed Hattie back and slumped in his chair. How did Paige get everyone to do what she wanted without threatening?

  Apprenticing? As though he didn’t have more experience than the whole DoDo house combined?

  Mario had a point, though. If they had a line to the President, then things could be pretty hostile for any paranormal that didn’t have protection. Like having powerful wards around their town or a paranormal police force like Red Star.

  Dexx ran his hands through his hair and blew out his cheeks and scratched his head. One stack of papers to review, and another, much shorter, that was done.

  “Enough of this shit. Let’s go out.”

  Hattie turned over, her ears flicked forward in excitement. Days, weeks of sitting in the chair and doing nothing wasn’t her idea of fun. Hunting demons and other bad guys, with liberal doses of play. We cannot
stay strong if we lay down to hunt.

  Damn straight. Dexx flipped his jacket from the hook and left the office.

  The bullpen was alive. Well, when compared to the office.

  Michelle entertained Tarik and Frey. Something was apparently worthwhile on the computer screen, but when they saw Dexx they filtered back to their desks and sat.

  Rainbow furiously tapped at her own computer.

  Ethel sat on a taller stool and watched.

  Dexx’s desk, which had been Quinn Winters’ before it’d been his, was empty. The thing was cursed. However, it had managed to survive an all-inclusive department bashing from the lizard wizard and his gang.

  “Who wants to go and see if we can find something to break?” Dexx gave the bullpen a mischievous sidelong look.

  Blank stares met his.

  “Nobody?”

  Michelle used her pencil to point at her keyboard nonverbally stating she was busy. Paperwork. And computer work.

  Tarik didn’t move.

  Frey crossed her arms.

  “Hey, I’m not the bad guy. Let’s go break some shit. ‘Bo? You want to see what we can scare up?”

  “Can’t. I’m trying to snipe this two hundred color painter’s pen set.”

  “What?”

  Rainbow already had her attention back on her screen.

  Fuck it. Let’s go, cat.

  We can patrol the border.

  Maybe. We could go work on Jackie, too.

  Hattie didn’t think that was as fun.

  Once outside, Dexx opened the door on Leah’s ‘72 Ranchero and plopped into the seat.

  The motor started almost as well as Jackie had before her accident. The exhaust burbled robust without crackles or pops. Caballo, as Leah had named him, had come a long way since his junkyard refugee days.

  He and Leah had given him a Krylon makeover to make him a single color. Road warrior black in satin. He looked pretty menacing now, with chrome highlights.

  Where should he go? Hattie’s vote was to patrol the border, his own was to work on Jackie, but he couldn’t do either.

  Paige had told him to stay away from the border and had given him explicit orders to not get caught on camera. Psh. Those didn’t mean anything.

  They were lucky that the cameras only had blurred images of him in the fight with Sven. Through the entire battle with the demons, the shots of him were fuzzy to the point of unusable.

  Paige giving birth on the blacktop? Clear as HD could make it. Until the crowd blocked the view. But Dexx? Amazingly free of airtime.

  Dexx sat there in the parking space.

  Paralyzed.

  Indecisive.

  The urge to do something pulled at him. Responsibility tugged in another direction.

  When was the last time that had happened? Sometime in his high school career maybe. What was wrong?

  He put his head on the steering wheel and when he looked up, he was at the police department. The mundane department.

  Chief Tuck’s old beat up truck added a spot of happy orange color in the black and white lot. Rust and orange.

  Dexx shut the car off and pulled the keys, wondering how in the hell he’d gotten there. He reached for the door handle and hesitated. Why would he come here?

  Why did Paige have to go to D.C. now? She’d taken Leah and the twins, and now Dexx felt like part, or more than a part of him was missing. Did he feel the need to talk to Tuck? Was that why he was there? He couldn’t think of anyone else to talk to?

  No. He was there to tell Tuck what to do with his job.

  Right?

  Dexx opened the door but still didn’t get out. Things didn’t feel right.

  He smelled a person coming up from the back of the car.

  “You just going to sit there, or come in?” Officer Shirley and Dexx had a not quite adversarial relationship.

  The few times they’d met, Dexx’d come out looking stupid.

  “Hey. I was just…” Dexx rolled his wrist trying to think of something. “Looking for the boss.” That sounded lame even to him.

  “Then you’re in the right place. You coming?”

  No.

  Yes.

  No.

  Maybe.

  Shit.

  Crap. Dixx got out and headed into the sheriff’s station.

  Chief Tuck had a largish office with a pressed texture walls and glass halfway up with slatted blinds for privacy.

  Dexx stopped, rehearsing what he wanted to say. What did he want to say? That he didn’t like the big chair, or he did like the big chair, but not all the responsibilities that came with it? He inhaled deeply, and let it go slowly.

  Before he was ready, he tapped on the door. Shit. Why was he there?

  “What’s up, Colt?” The most interesting man in the world crossed with Sam Elliot looked up from a stack of papers. Damn, he looked competent behind the desk, shuffling papers.

  “Gotta minute?” Dexx felt himself say. Had Hattie taken over somehow?

  “No, but since you’re here, I’ll push the mayor back a little.” The corner of mouth went up in a smirk.

  “Ha, ha. You funny guy.” Cop humor. He didn’t get it. Or was he really pushing the mayor back? Didn’t matter anyway since the city was walled off from the world.

  “What’s on your mind, Dexx? I hope it’s not to tell me you’re planning on breaking more of the city, because you and Sven did a pretty good job of it already. The good news is there’s less to break now.”

  Dexx had never once intentionally destroyed any part of the city. That had always been bad people doing bad shit. “Always got to get another dig in, don’t ya?”

  Tuck smiled broad, without teeth. “If I didn’t, how would you know you’re alive?”

  “Pea and Les keep me on my toes often enough.” Did they? Why was he here, again?

  “How are things on your side of town?”

  Leave it to Tuck to hit the nail so hard it went through the wood. “I don’t know. I’m the boss now, really the boss…”

  “And you don’t know if you’re cut out for it? Maybe you thought you’d have more tee times, and less papers to finish? I thought that too, but it goes away after a while.”

  It did? At least he’d have a number to write on the calendar. “How long does that last?”

  “Not long. Say, a day or two after you die.” Tuck grinned at him again. The mentor teasing the apprentice.

  “Hm.” Situation normal, all fucked up. “So I have that to look forward to. Can’t we get rid of the never-ending rain of paper? We’re on our own now.”

  “Look, Dexx. I want to say it’s all fun and games and you’ll be out with your guys crackin’ heads and blasting demons, and the truth is, you have a hell of a team, but they need your guidance. I know you want to lead from the front, but sometimes you have to push from the rear. The best Generals of all time lead the charge. The other best Generals lead from smoke-filled rooms. You may be one of them best. You’ll have an easier time of it if you find the balance of pushing and pulling.”

  “How do you do it?” Tuck seemed the most level-headed man he’d ever known.

  “I trust my guys. I give them the discipline I need in them and trust that they’ll do the right thing.”

  That sounded good, but there was always the desk in front of him. That sucked royally. “I hate paperwork.”

  “At the end of every good job is paperwork.” His face pulled up in another smirk.

  The end of every good job? “The shitty kind, right?”

  “Yeah, that kind.” Tuck managed through a chuckle. “Dexx, I want you to know I’m here for you when you need help. Sometimes I have doubts too, but don’t let your people know. The face you show them is the strength they’ll take out there.” He waved a hand toward the walls. Past the walls.

  That felt right.

  Hattie nodded at the truth of it.

  “Go home. Relax. Recharge and come at it again tomorrow. It gets easier even if it doesn’t get any more
exciting.”

  Dexx stood up and half turned. “You sound a lot like Alma but without swearing or cookies.”

  Tuck barked a laugh. “She was an amazing woman.”

  “Yes, yes she was.” Dexx missed her more than he thought he should.

  Dexx left the office and drove home to recharge. He had an idea of what might help, but Hattie might not like it.

  Jackie had a real shot at firing up tonight.

  But only if the world didn’t blow up first. What were his chances?

  Preorder London Bridge

  What’s Next?

  Join us as my husband takes you to England in London Bridge Down. Dexx is kidnapped and his memories are wiped. Why? Because his original enemy is back and ready to settle the score once and for all.

  Dexx just has to remember who and what he’s fighting for before it’s too late!

  Preorder London Bridge Down now!

  https://www.fjblooding.com/pre-order-wwmr-book-2

  Don’t forget to leave reviews! Let us know what you think!

  About the Author

  F.J. Blooding lives in hard-as-nails Alaska growing grey hair in the midnight sun with Shane, her writing partner and husband, his two part-time kids, his BrotherTwin, SistaWitch, TeenMan, and SnarkGirl, along with a small menagerie of animals which includes several cats, an army of chickens, a rabbit or two, but only one dog.

  She enjoys writing and creating with her wonderful husband and dreaming about sleeping. She’s dated vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, weapons smugglers, U.S. Government assassins, and slingshot terrorists. No. She is not kidding. She even married one of them.

  Sign up for her newsletter, get free books, and join the discussions on the forums when you visit her website at FJBlooding.com.