Quinn quirked her lips. “Didn’t I tell you she would do this?”
Rainbow shrugged. “You did. I didn’t believe you.”
Paige ignored that for the moment. “Here’s a stack of cases. I want you to take them, first come, first serve. They’re different types of cases. B&E, assault, other stuff. They still need to be handled just like anything else, but the locals can’t solve them. You’re not real police officers yet. You will be teamed up with personnel from Chief Tuck’s team. You provide the intel. You let them take lead, and if they need the kind of assistance that only you can provide, you do that.”
Rainbow frowned.
Tarik narrowed his eyes, opening his mouth.
Quinn crossed her arms over her chest.
Michelle gritted her teeth. “I’m a goddamned detective, sir. I’m not a police officer.”
“You still are. You’re just solving other types of cases now, too.”
“Ones below my paygrade.”
“I could fix that for you, if that’s the problem.” Paige regretted saying that the moment the words came out of her mouth. “Look, Michelle, it’s an odd situation for all of us. Okay? But we’re paving a new path.”
Dexx shrugged. “Hey, you all just got elevated to cool kid status. And you don’t even realize it yet.”
Paige was almost afraid to know what that status was.
“You’re all hunters now.”
Yeah. That’s the reason why. “You’re not hunters. We don’t kill. We solve the cases and they’re arrested.”
Michelle flattened her lips. “Great.”
“But what about the murder cases?” Rainbow stood. “I know the most about them.”
“And you and I will be teamed up on them,” Paige said. “But when you and I aren’t working this case, you’ll work with the others on the other cases. Look at that pile, Rainbow, and tell me that these victims aren’t as worthy of justice as the others.”
Rainbow frowned.
“We do our jobs, guys. Okay? Let’s just do our jobs.”
It was a new day in the Red Star Division. A new day that wasn’t going over so well.
Everyone except Rainbow dispersed back to their desks.
Before Paige could discuss how Rainbow was going to help her on the case, her phone rang. Alma.
Why would Alma be calling her in the middle of the day? She hadn’t before. She swiped the green button to pick up the call. “Hey, Grandma.”
“I need help,” Alma said out of breath. “Something is attacking the house.”
Shit. Paige stood, heading for the door. “Do you know who?”
Rainbow skipped after her.
“Not a damned clue. Damned wards won’t tell me anything.”
Likely because they weren’t strictly her wards. They belonged to Paige. Mostly. “And you couldn’t see anything?” She turned and held her hand to stop Rainbow, pulling the phone away from her mouth. “Find another case. I’ll be back.”
“Is everything all right?” Rainbow’s dark eyes were filled with concern.
Paige shook her head and turned back to the door.
“…a lot of ruckus,” Alma said as Paige put the phone back to her ear. “Knockin’ shit down. Rattlin’ the walls.”
Someone was approaching with malicious intent. Maybe.
Hell. Paige barely knew what she’d been doing when she set up those wards. It really could be anything.
Dexx raised his head like he caught a scent. He stood, stopping Tarik mid-sentence.
“Grandma, I’m coming. Just hold off until I get there.”
“Hurry.”
“Will do.” She disconnected the call and stashed her phone in her pocket.
Dexx met Paige at the door. “What’s wrong?”
“House is under attack.”
He spun on his heel and opened the double doors. “Any idea what it is?”
“Nope.” And that scared her. They had a lot of enemies. Ones she hadn’t dealt with in months. There was the whole demon situation that she’d just opted to ignore because she didn’t frelling have time. Her plate was fucking full. What happened if they came calling?
“Could be anything, then.”
“Yup.”
“Angel, demon, witch?”
“Shifter?” Because that was a possibility, too. Chuck had all the confidence in the world that he was the best damned alpha the planet had seen. She didn’t.
“Probably not,” Dexx said, opening Jackie’s driver’s side door and slipping into the seat.
Paige opened the passenger door as he ignited Jackie’s engine. “Chuck doesn’t have them all under control, Dexx. There are some out there that don’t approve of the fact that he’s teaming up with us.”
“Well, they’re wrong.”
“I agree. But I doubt it’s angels.” She hoped it wasn’t angels.
“And the demons have been unsettlingly quiet as of late. Any word from Balnore?”
“No.” And that was cause for concern. Granted, maybe he knew how busy she was. Maybe he was trying to help out by not adding to her plate. That was the kind of demon he was.
But maybe he was dead, too. That was a possibility.
Not a great one. Balnore was one of the strongest allies she had.
Dexx shrugged, his eyes wide. “Then, let’s hope it’s not demons?”
Well, no. If it was demons, she could fix that. “Let’s hope it’s not angels.”
“But you’ve had Bobby warded against them, haven’t you? And Roxxie’s protecting him.”
“And he’s at the school right now.” Thankfully, all the kids were in school.
“So, probably not angels. Witches.”
“It would have to be a Blackman. I would know if it was the Eastwoods.”
“And how would you know?”
“Oliver Eastwood came to visit me today. I know how the wards react to Eastwoods. You didn’t see him leave?”
“Honestly? No.”
“Well, he did.”
“Why?”
“He wants to help.”
“Oh, goody. Help with what?”
“Bring down his mother.”
“Awesomer. Okay.” He turned onto their drive. “So, Blackmans. Did you do something to piss them off?”
“Like reject their help and training?” Paige shrugged as they turned down the drive. “Only the once.” She switched on to witch vision. The trees pulsed with life, the vegetation. The rabbit by the road, the pair of deer in the trees a few feet away.
No strange auras. No weird magick. No taint of death magick in the air.
“Alpha.” Dexx gripped the steering wheel and sped up.
Alpha? And then she felt it, too. She switched off her witch vision as her hackles rose and her pissiness grew. She wanted to rip someone’s head off. She wanted to sink her claws into someone’s flesh. “Yeah. Alpha.” But she didn’t know which one.
Dexx slammed on his brakes, spewing gravel all around him as he slid to a stop in front of the Whiskey house. “Where is she?”
She? How could he tell?
He got out of the car and shut the door a little harder than he’d allow her to.
She followed, scanning the area. Now would be a really great time for Cawli to show back up.
But he remained silent.
A twig snapped behind her and to the left.
Paige spun, crouched, her witch hands at the ready, though what the hell they were supposed to do was beyond her.
A short woman with long, bright golden hair stepped out of the shadows of the house and onto the lawn. Her shorts left very little to the imagination, as did her blue t-shirt that was tied in a knot above her belly button.
Paige didn’t know this woman.
“Kelly,” Dexx growled.
Well, apparently he did. Awesome.
“What are you doing here?”
“What I promised I would do if you didn’t get your witches to leave and never return.”
Paige
turned to Dexx and daggered him with her gaze.
He didn’t seem to notice. He flexed his hands, claws elongating along his nailbeds. He lowered slightly to a crouch. “And you’ll meet the fate I told you you would if you chose this path.”
Kelly smiled a cocky smile and tipped her head. “I have the power of a pack.”
“So does he.” Paige took a step forward, pissed at Dexx for not telling her about this and at Kelly for presuming that Dexx was alone just because his ‘pack’ didn’t come with fleas.
Kelly’s flat gaze slid to Paige, then dismissed her with a grimace. “It’ll show in a fight. In a real fight.”
Dexx gave her a sick smile and pulled his shirt over his head. “Yes. Yes, it will.” His upper torso began to morph before he’d had a chance to fully remove his jeans. They slid off his thinner legs, his boots remaining where he’d last placed his human feet.
A giant cat stood next to Paige, his shoulder nearly meeting hers.
A car pulled up behind them.
Kelly grinned, not even bothering to remove her clothes before morphing herself. Hyena.
How did a hyena think she was going to fight a saber-toothed cat?
With help.
Other hyenas prowled forward, laughing and snorting as they spoke to one another.
“Oh, shit.” Paige crouched, her hands clawed, though what was she going to do? It would be really awesome if she could shift, but…no. Animal spirit inside her and she couldn’t frelling shift. Shit!
Chuck stopped on the other side of her, surveying the situation, his lips out.
Paige raised her hands, palms up. “Well,? Aren’t you going to do something?”
“I can’t.” He folded his arms over his chest. “The challenge has been issued and accepted.”
Great. “And what happens if we lose?”
“You will, for all intents and purposes, belong to their pack.”
He had to be kidding. “And if we win?”
“Their pack belongs to you.” He turned to face her. “So, alpha, you decide. What are you going to do?”
What the fuck was she supposed to do?
Fight.
The hyenas hesitated, glancing at Kelly as if needing her permission.
Maybe they did. This was an alpha fight, after all.
And Kelly seemed to have brought her whole pack. Well, what did Paige know? Maybe this wasn’t her whole pack. But Dexx and Paige were certainly outnumbered. Oh, fuck. What amazing things could she do as a witch in a claw fight?
Kelly attacked Dexx, her teeth going for his throat.
His haunches tensed right before he leapt at her, meeting her halfway in one bound.
What was Kelly thinking, taking on a shifter the size of Dexx?
She was joined by four others.
Leaving Paige to deal with the remaining three.
Paige didn’t have claws. She didn’t have teeth. She had easy-to-tear human flesh and stupid human teeth.
And a gun. Were you supposed to bring a gun to a shifter battle?
Chuck took a step back.
Oh, great. Awesome. Thanks.
Paige released a breath, a headache starting to form over her left temple. Stop thinking, she said to herself. Do what you do best and try not to kill any of them.
Well, all righty then.
She shook out her witch hands, flexing them, letting them loose. They rippled with roiling death magick, curbed by the silver of Cawli’s magick.
The smallest of the three hyenas laughed, squawked, then launched itself at her, all teeth and growling yips.
Paige reeled her witch hand to her physical one, balled them both in a fist, and punched the hyena under the muzzle with the combined force of physical and magick strength.
The hyena yipped and fell to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and launched herself at Paige again.
This time, with friends.
Hyena to the right.
She punched him with her left hand.
Hyena to the left.
She punched him with her right, her anger building, her death magick pumping, her witch hands enlarging as if becoming engorged on her rage.
She couldn’t kill them.
That didn’t mean she had to leave them with a whole lot of life left.
The three hyenas circled her, laughing and talking to each other in their weird, chittering ways.
Paige’s death magick whispered to her, telling her things she probably shouldn’t do. Touch one, it whispered to her. Just touch one and pull, pull the death closer to this moment.
As in suck the life energy from them?
Not quite. And an explosion of information crashed into her mind. Life. Death. Same line. Fluctuating points.
How to live longer, remain young.
So, this was the reason Merry had chosen Shelia for her blood spell for longer life.
If that was the case, though, why didn’t the Blackmans use it?
Why would you think they don’t?
Paige didn’t know who asked that question. Her death magick? Her? Something else.
It didn’t matter. She didn’t want to live longer. She just wanted to survive this battle, protect her family, and make her home safe again.
She waited for the hyenas to attack.
The big one led, quickly followed by the small one and the third. Three of them, attacking at one time. No time to hit one without allowing another to latch onto her flesh.
Snarling teeth in her face.
A chortling laugh in her ear.
Claws upon her back.
She closed her eyes and let the death magick seep through her, moving from her hands, up her arms, into her back and shoulders and chest. Anywhere the shifters touched. The black ooze seeped out of her, latching onto them, drawing their death closer to the front, closer to today.
The small one would no longer have pups. No husband. No job.
The middle one wouldn’t have grandkids. Wouldn’t move away and meet the love of his life.
The larger one fell to the ground, panting.
His death, surprisingly, had been very close already. He was supposed to die. That day. This day.
Paige’s death magick sang a siren song. Touching their death moments, drawing them nearer, watching the lives they would never live…it was intoxicating. She tipped her head to the side, her magick latching onto the remaining two as they backed away.
It would be so easy to just give that tether one little tug. Bring their death that much closer. So easy. And it felt amazing.
Teeth latched onto the back of Paige’s neck.
She opened her eyes. The large one lay on the ground, panting. The middle one stood, bow-legged and watching.
The little one. Damn that little bitch’s will.
Paige curled her hands into fists, ready to punch, claw, grab, whatever it took.
Something leached out of her through the base of her neck.
Cold dread washed over her.
Shifters could ingest a witch’s soul.
Blessed Mother. What was she doing? Using death magick to kill shifters? Was that any better than anything—
She had to fix this.
But first, she had to get the little bitch off her back.
Paige opened her eyes to the real world. Jackie was right behind her. Without a second thought, Paige fell to the side, swiping the bitch hard against Jackie’s trunk.
The bitch yipped and let go. She laughed to the other hyena.
He approached.
Paige had to repair what she had done. Yes. They were in the middle of a battle. Yes. The whole point was to weaken her enemies and win.
But Dexx needed to win against Kelly. Paige just had to keep the others from joining the fight.
Paige switched to witch vision again and extended her witch hands, her death magick hands. She reached out and touched the large hyena.
But instead of pulling his death moment closer, she pushed it further away.
Surviving
this day. Getting a motorcycle. Working odd jobs for gas. Traveling the Midwest.
Paige swallowed and set her hands on the bitch.
Different alpha. Going to college. Becoming an engineer. Working to design reliable energy that didn’t kill the environment. Visiting her sister’s kids, thankful not to have any of her own.
The laughing stopped.
The bitch stood in front of Paige, staring at her with her hyena eyes, her hackles lowered. She looked at her once dying pack mate as he got to his feet.
Paige reached for the third.
He shook her off. Yipping, he dodged to the left and disappeared around the house.
Seconds later, a quick yip sounded over the yard, followed by another.
The bitch’s eyes glowed red and her body went rigid.
The large hyena’s back bowed like a stretching cat, a red glow lighting the ground in front of his face.
Paige looked at them, waiting, watching. What had just happened? What was going to happen next?
The bitch morphed, her fur disappearing and becoming skin. Her eyes still held a faint glow, but it was no longer red.
Blue.
Paige dropped her hands and released her magick. “Dexx?”
He walked around the corner of the house in all his glorious nakedness, blood trailing down his shoulder and over his hip. “You okay?”
Paige nodded.
The bitch looked from Paige to Dexx back to Paige. “Why did you do that?”
“Do what?” Paige asked quietly.
The bitch stared at Paige as if she should know what.
And she did.
“Give us back our life?”
Good question. She took in a deep breath. “Because…” She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. “It wasn’t your time to die.”
That death magick thing Paige had just discovered terrified the shit out of her. What kind of person had that?
Stop it. She’d been born with it. The magick itself didn’t make her anything. What she did with it would define her.
Fuck.
That…magick had just been laying inside her. Dormant? Waiting? Was this the reason Sven and Oriel were so interested in her? Did their interest have anything to do with the door to Hell buried inside her soul? She’d always believed it had, that they were only interested in the Gate to Hell inside her soul. After all, Sven had gone to great lengths to give it to her. Like the clap.
Witches of the West - (An Urban Fantasy Whiskey Witches Novel) Page 24
