“She’ll be fine,” Alma said, her back rim-rod straight as she stared at her granddaughter. “She’s a Whiskey.”
Paige pulled her chest out and 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 squinted 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.
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. “All these years, I’ve preached the word of God. And now I don’t know what’s real.”
Dexx took in a deep breath, as the rain slackened. “Don’t lose faith, Father. There are a lot of people out there who depend on you.”
“And you, my son.”
Dexx sighed and stepped into the drizzle. “Don’t call me son.”
“I CALL SHOTGUN,” Balnore said, ignoring the pouring heavens and striding toward the car.
“No offense, Bal,” Dexx called, opening the trunk to deposit his bag. “But I’d prefer Paige up front.”
“Thanks,” Alma said. “Stuff me in the back with them.”
“I’ll sit in the back with Alma and Lucius,” Paige said, her voice low and quiet.
“Uh, yeah, no.” Dexx shut the trunk with a note of finality, the rain flying off Jackie’s shiny rump and splashing him further. “That’s a bad mix. You’re in the front. Deal with it.”
Alma climbed into the back seat, Balnore following careful suit. Lucius walked to Dexx’s side of the car and stared in confusion.
“Car. Modern wonders.” Dexx gestured toward the backseat. “Get in.”
Lucius did so with little grace, his dark expression as he sat squished in the back seat.
Dexx grinned as he re-set the driver’s seat. He pushed it a tad further back than he was used to. He made sure he could reach the pedals, then started the long trek back to the inn.
Paige kept to herself, but she was far from the wreck he’d witnessed minutes before. Cool, calm and collected.
“You realize you smell like an ashtray, right?” He kept her in his peripheral as he eased away from the last stop sign in town.
“Yeah. Also, my mouth feels like an ashtray.” She rubbed her tongue along her teeth with a yuck-face. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“I do.”
Jackie rolled out of the little town and onto the two-lane highway. Towering trees festooned with choking ivy lined the road for as far as the eye could see. Forty-one miles could feel like a lifetime unless they figured out something to talk about.
He looked in his rearview mirror and got an eye-full of Lucius. “So, Luce.”
His black, beady eyes bored into Dexx’s.
Dexx smiled, enjoying the obvious distaste the man-demon had for the nickname. After what he’d put Paige through, it was the least Dexx could do. “Luce, what more can you tell us about this fabulous gate, the key, and how to keep everything closed?”
Lucius shifted his attention to the window next to him.
“He’s a bit shy,” Balnore said cheerfully, wedged between Lucius and Alma. “Has been ever since he was a small boy. He’s got a lot to learn about how to communicate properly.” He emphasized those last two words directly into Lucius’ ear.
“I communicate fine, thank you.”
Balnore raised his eyebrows and snuggled in. “That’s apparent. If you’d communicated clearer, perhaps these guys wouldn’t’ve been so keen to kick you back to Hell.”
“I challenge you to do better. That place was a bloody trap. No way in. No way out. No one to talk to. No way to get a message off.”
Dexx made sure to pay most of his attention on the road. “So how’d Mike and Malika find you?”
“Mike and . . .” A confused frown furrowed Lucius’ face. “Right. The witch and her boyfriend. I don’t know. Possibly through Sven.”
Paige’s wandering fingers stilled.
“Wait,” Dexx said. “Wasn’t that who you thought this was before we found out it was Lucius?”
She nodded.
“Who and what is Sven?” Alma asked.
“Sven Seven Tails.” Paige pressed her knuckled into her lips.
“He’s a trickster,” Balnore added. “An evil trickster. His main goal is to create mayhem.”
“So he’s not a cuddly demon,” Dexx said.
“Cuddly?” Balnore met Dexx’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Demons aren’t cuddly.”
“I thought you were all about healing and shit.”
“No. We’re about getting you morons to accept responsibility for your own damned actions.”
“Oh. I think I hit a nerve.”
“Dexx.” Paige took in a deep breath and let it out. “How many assholes can we fit in one car?”
Dexx sucked air between his lips and his teeth.
Balnore didn’t add anything.
“Seven Tails,” Lucius said with his British lilt, “has always been about bringing destruction. He thinks of you humans as play things.”
“You humans.” Dexx snorted. “You’re a human.”
“Who’s lived thousands of years? I think I’m a bit more than a mere mortal, don’t you?”
“Rub it in.”
“Dexx,” Paige said.
“Yes, nag. So do we have a better idea what we’re walking into now?”
“Oh, definitely.” Lucius thumped in the seat, glaring at Balnore. “Do we have to ride in this infernal contraption?”
“Can you teleport without command?” Balnore asked, his eyes closed.
“Ms. Whiskey,” Lucius said, “would do us the very great honor of commanding me out of this ghastly car?”
“Ghastly?” Dexx mouthed.
Paige shook her head, her expression dry. “What should we be searching for? Right now, we know about Jones and Malika.”
“This is getting confusing,” Alma said. She sat in the corner Dexx couldn’t see. “Why can’t you just call him Mike like everyone else? And don’t say the word ‘civilian.’ I’m sick and tired of hearing you throw that word around.”
“Well, it’s true. I’ll try to remember to refer to him by his first name. He’s a disgrace to the Force anyway.”
“That he is.” Dexx didn’t usually have anything good to say about cops, but he respected them. They went out there, risked their lives every day. As long as they weren’t working occult cases, they were heroes. Plain and simple. “Con de sending.”
Paige took a second to replay what he said. Once she got it, she snorted. “That was bad.”
Lucius frowned at them.”
“Look, Luce, if I have to explain every joke and one-liner to you, you’re going to bring down the fun factor.”
Extreme dead pan filled the rearview mirror.
“I didn’t get that one,” Alma grumbled.
Dexx let his head fall against the seat. “Right. So, Luce, what can you tell us that we don’t already know?”
“The key is in three parts.”
“Three parts as in broken or three parts as in made that way?”
“Broken. A long time ago, things went all to cock.”
“All to what?”
“Seriously, if I have to explain everything I say, hunter, you’re going to bring the fun factor down.”
“Oof.” Okay. Score one for the demon.
“Someone took the key and released Heaven on Earth. The demons rose and for years, the two forces battled each other for dominance. Leave it say, things went balls up in a big way.”
“Right.” Oh British slang in the bac
kseat. Who needed Graham Norton? “Only none of that’s in the history books.”
“You don’t think so? Are you really such a cabbage? Demons and angels are embedded in your history. Every war. Every miracle. We’re there.”
Did he seriously call Dexx a cabbage? “All right. So someone opened the gate and big bad came out. So what?”
“My brethren and I fought to seal the gate, and in so doing, the key shattered.”
“They can’t use it then. This whole key thing is a waste.”
“I had thought so.” Lucius paused.
Concentrating on the traffic, something quippy failed to rise to Dexx’s tongue.
“Gabriel bound me between realms for a reason. The witch discovered a way to at least partially open the gate for short periods of time.”
“The ghost,” Dexx said.
“All those demons,” Alma said.
“The demons could have been gathering over the past several years,” Paige said, her voice harsh. “After all, they knew how to get up here before someone started messing around with the key, and I wasn’t around to send them all back when their jobs were done.”
“How does that work?” Dexx asked, stretching his one good shoulder. The other one pounded, giving him a headache. He’d probably overdone it. The doc had said to rest it. Granted, he wasn’t working as hard as he normally did, but he didn’t think the doctor would have called this resting either. “I mean, how do you guys come up here without the use of the gate?”
“Man’s soul is their doorway,” Paige said.
“And why can’t angels use this doorway?” Dexx asked.
“Who says they don’t?” Balnore grunted. “It helps our guardians were missing in action. One of their primary duties is to keep track of the demons’ walkings.”
“’Walkings,’” Dexx mouthed, his eyebrows raised. “So why’d you bind Paige?”
“I was talking about Lucius. Paige is a summoner.”
“But she said that’s what she was doing.”
“Only because we couldn’t find the real guardians.”
“There are thirteen of us,” Lucius said. “Having one disappear should not have been a prob—”
“There were thirteen of you,” Balnore corrected. “You’re the only one we’ve found.”
Alarm fluttered across Lucius’ face. “The last?”
“Hard to say if you’re the last. You all disappeared at about the same time. After you were gone, Lucifer shut himself off from everyone.”
“So what you’re saying is Hell has gone to the dogs.” Dexx chuckled. “That’s funny. I mean, really.”
“This could be bad,” Paige said.
“Yes,” Balnore acknowledged.
“Bad how?” Alma asked.
“The last demon I talked to mentioned something stirring in Hell.” Paige put her fingertips to the rain dotted window. “However, with Lucifer in control, I knew it couldn’t get too bad. He maintains order. Without it, the demons are . . .” She trailed off with a shrug.
“Ambling around without a leader,” Dexx finished.
Paige pursed her lips and nodded. “But that also means someone is vying for power. Someone has probably already started working to gain enough prestige to take the throne right out of Lucifer’s control.”
“That can’t be good.”
“No.” Paige stretched her legs as much as she could. “And with the guardians gone?”
“There’s no one to stand in their way.”
“So,” Paige said, “just to be clear. Your theory is that the greatest trickster, Sven, is working to take over Hell.”
“Why else would he be doing all this?”
“This,” Lucius said, his voice low, “the trapping of my brethren and I, is not the work of the Fallen.”
“What do you mean?”
“We can enter easily even without a gate.”
Dexx tapped his fist against the steering wheel. “Then why—”
“The angels,” Lucius said, raising his voice. “They cannot use you so easily. They need the gate to roam the Earth.”
Paige twisted to look at Lucius. “You said Gabriel bound you.”
“Yes.”
“And backed Rachel,” Balnore said, “in taking Leah.”
Lucius narrowed his eyes “That broke you.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Dexx said.
“So why would the archangels need the demon summoner out of the game, and how does that have anything to do with Sven?”
BALNORE ACTED FUNNY the rest of the ride back to St. Francisville. He requested Paige send him and Lucius out to track down their leads. She did, not knowing what was going on with him. Maybe he needed to talk to Lucius. She didn’t know. Frankly, she didn’t care.
Dexx and Alma didn’t approve, but, again, she didn’t care. Something still didn’t feel right, like she had to constantly fight to remain in her own body. It could be the aftereffects of possession and having two demons in the backseat. Sure. That could be it.
But she wondered if there was more to it. What was it Dexx had seen at the station? He’d been freaked out. She remembered that, but only that.
Her grandmother was a different matter altogether. Whatever Lucius had done, the wounds he’d reopened, the memories, he’d brought back, Paige couldn’t stand looking at the other woman. She needed Alma to go home.
The old woman wasn’t pleased.
Paige really didn’t care.
Watching Alma and Tru leave had been harder than she’d thought. The situation was huge and felt a lot bigger than she was ready for. She couldn’t afford to be a pansy, and they needed someone of Alma’s caliber on the case. A strong kitchen witch with incredible white magick? Yeah. That. She needed that.
But it belonged to the same woman who had made being possessed possible.
No. She needed people on her team she could trust.
She trusted two people. Brian White and Dexx Colt.
Leaving Dexx in bed, she went off to be reckless. Not that it was a good idea. She knew better. But she had a lot of extra energy to shake off. She called up her scry globe, searching for Sven. The sooner she could get that key and send him and all his demon friends back, the sooner she could go home.
Even with her powers back, she wasn’t stupid enough to go alone. No. She called for backup.
The globe led her to the outskirts of nowhere. Trees crowded the scene. She’d parked here because the road stopped. As in, it disappeared into forest. A rickety iron fence poked through the vines, fighting its way out.
Chief White got out of his car and walked along the hard-packed dirt road.
Paige watched him through the side mirror. A slight breeze caressed her face.
He set his hand on the door and leaned over. “Paige.”
“Brian.”
They’d both admitted they’d experienced too much together to keep the boundaries of protocol between them. It felt awkward for Paige. She didn’t even call her partner in Denver by his first name. But Brian White had seen her possessed. Her partner hadn’t.
“What are we doing here?”
Paige opened the door, shoving the keys in her pocket. “My scry globe showed a group of demons nearby. I want to check it out.”
He winced, narrowing his eyes at the sun high in the sky. “I’m never going to get used to that.”
“You might want to try.” Sweat trailed between her shoulder blades. She hated the heat. Dear God.
“Plan?”
“Go in. I use my super powers. We get answers.”
“Have you even slept?”
She’d tried.
“What questions are we asking?”
“Where’s Sven.”
“Where’s who?”
“Sven.” She unclipped her gun, not that it’d be useful, but she always felt better with it in her hand. “He’s the third person, the master-mind. A demon of epic proportions.”
“Is it possible he turned Mike?”
“Th
ey’re not vampires, Chief.”
He flicked his gaze at her, his lips quirked.
A gravel pathway overridden with weeds and grass led them into the heart of the forest.
They reached the outskirts of an old cemetery. A tall, full tree with hanging Spanish moss presided over the scene, giving it an austere feel.
“I don’t get it. St. Mary Episcopal Church should be sacred ground.”
“Is that where we are?” She’d seen where the demons were located. She hadn’t been able to tell the exact location. “Demons can go anywhere.”
“But a church?”
“You’re going to have to get over these misconceptions you have about church and demons.”
“Fine.”
They walked past a cracked tomb, the door barely ajar.
A bad feeling crept into her chest. “Is this an active church?”
“No. When they put in the highway, it left St. Mary’s inaccessible. No one could get here, and no one built new roads.”
“So, it’s abandoned.”
“Yes.” He jerked his gun to the side.
Paige went still beside him, her ears peeled. She caught his gaze and shook her head once.
He tipped his head, concentrating, then relaxed. “Must have been an animal.”
She didn’t miss the fact he whispered. “Did you want to stay in the car?”
“Nope. What good do you think I’m going to be in a demon fight?”
“I doubt there will be one.” She stepped around a headstone she hadn’t seen until she was right on top of it. 1898—1898. A child.
“Do you think they’re in the church?”
Her skin buzzed as if she’d stepped through an electro-static curtain. They were either close, or something strange was taking place there.
“So they’re just going to talk?”
The thick air shifted and an acidic smell teased her nose. “Yeah. Probably.” She tried to decipher what the smell was, but came up blank. She’d never really been good with scents. Dexx, on the other hand, had a super-sleuth nose. “Demons like to gloat.”
“And you think they have reason to gloat.”
“Yeah. All we have to do is find the key. It could be hiding anywhere.”
“In the open?”
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