They couldn’t take Dexx back to the precinct where someone would start asking questions about him, then run a background check.
“Come on, Tony. I’m ready for wine.” A shooting ray of the dying sun stabbed her eye. Pain flared in her skull, riling her already sensitive nerves. No answers. No solutions. More questions. She needed another cigarette.
No. The ash still clung to her lungs. No. She did not need another cigarette. Sex? Yeah. Maybe she needed sex. Blessed Mother. “And hot dogs. I know I have hot dogs.”
“Wow.” Tony’s shoes made a sliding staccato on the concrete outside the restaurant that had become the latest dead end. “Well, I can’t say I’m interested in your hotdogs, but if you have a beer…”
“We have ales.” Dexx zipped up his jacket and quirked his lips to the sun. The light made his green eyes seem as though they were laced with lightning. “We’re in Colorado. Apparently, it’s known for its ales and there’s this liquor store that lets you build your own six-pack. It’s brilliant.”
“Yeah.” Paige walked toward the station. “It’s so ‘brilliant’, my fridge looks like a liquor store. So, you’re coming over.”
Tony glanced at her out of the corner of his eye as they walked. “Do you realize we’ve been partners for five years and I’ve never seen your place?”
“Do you realize we’ve been partners for the last five years and I never knew you were a vampire?”
He clucked his tongue.
The drive to her place was long due to traffic, but uneventful. It allowed her time to let go of the events of the day, at least enough so that she didn’t feel the need to turn anyone into a toad.
“So, this is your place?”
The complex wasn’t much to look at. It was on the rich end of the poor side of town. She should have been able to afford more, but, well, she was paying child support, a fact she now knew. Oh, those wily mind-blockers. They could keep a person from even asking the questions when it was time to pay the bills.
Tony stepped through the threshold of her apartment and stopped, his gaze on the ceiling.
Paige frowned at it and turned on the lights. A paper butterfly, some tissue paper flowers, and several strings of rope lights hung from the ceiling. “What? I decorate for the seasons.”
“You have a broom hanging from your ceiling.”
She forced herself to widen her eyes in shock. She hadn’t received a reaction like that since Texas, but then again, she hadn’t invited anyone to her place since Texas besides Dexx. A durable stick broom hung from the top of the wide doorway separating the dining room from the living room. It was so covered in silk, purple wisteria and plastic dill weed, she almost couldn’t see the broom itself anymore. “Holy cow! Wow. That’s what this thing is? I’d wondered! It just appeared one day. Like a growth.”
He gave her a dry look.
Dexx untied his boots and left them at the front door. “Take your shoes off and stay a spell.”
Tony frowned at him, but did as he was told.
Someone knocked on the front door. The force of it vibrated Paige’s hand as she used it to keep herself steady to take off her boots.
With one boot on and one boot off, she leaned forward and peered through the peephole.
A tall, slender young man with dark eyes and sharp features stood in front of her door, adjusting his grey necktie uncomfortably.
Frowning, she unlocked the door. “Special Agent Scott.” He was FBI and had assisted on the Louisiana case.
He flashed a quick smile. “Jack. Remember?”
“Right.” Shit-wow. A very busy day, and now this? She didn’t need this right now. “So, then, personal reasons for the visit?”
He tipped his head to the side, biting his lip. “Yes. Can I come in?”
Could she really say no? She moved out of his way, inviting him in. She closed the door behind him, throwing the deadbolt and the chain. “Dexx, you remember Jack?”
“Mr. I-See-Dead-People-Die-Before-They-Die.” Dexx clasped Jack’s hand. “Sure. What brings you out here?”
“Uh.” Jack’s dark eyes landed on Tony.
“Right.” Paige released a breath out of one side of her mouth. “Special Agent Jack Scott is with the FBI and sees dead people before they die.”
Tony nodded, the corners of his lips drawn down. He reached out a hand. “Detective Tony Guerrerro. Vampire.”
Jack’s smile froze, his hand already clasping Tony’s. He jutted his head forward. “Did I hear you right? Vampire?”
Tony nodded and kicked off his shiny black loafers. “What about those beers?”
“Yeah, sure.” Dexx turned toward the tiny kitchen. “What do you like? Darks? Ambers? IPA’s?”
“IPA, if you have one that’s any good.”
“Jack?” Dexx called, his head in the fridge, bottles clanking together.
“Uh, um, amber?” The man’s sharp features remained twisted in disbelief.
Dexx stood. “Are you sure?” He drew out the last word with a sarcastic flare.
Jack wouldn’t stop staring at Tony.
Paige gave Dexx a frank look. “Amber, D.”
“D?” He whistled and pulled four bottles from the fridge. “You slay me, Pea.”
She shrugged. “My house, D. My rules.”
He took the church key—aka, the bottle opener—off the fridge, popped the tops of the bottles, and brought them out to everyone. “Amber for the undecided one. Hey, man. It’s okay. Really. IPA for the walking undead one. Dark for the hormonal one.”
Paige raised an eyebrow, but took the brew. “Did you want to die? Tonight?”
“Trying to liven the moment.” He clunked his bottle with hers. “I’ll get started on the hotdogs.”
“I can help.” Not that she wanted to. It might be her apartment and her kitchen, but she didn’t like cooking. Not that heating up hotdogs could ever be considered cooking, even if one decided to use the stove.
“I’m saving pans all over the world, Pea.”
She grimaced good-humoredly and gestured toward the high, square, black table. “Let’s sit and play a game.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Are you telling me we have evidence to re-re-review?” Paige went to the table beside the loveseat and pulled out the drawer. She didn’t have much in the way of games. Other people were required in order to play those. But she did have UNO. And, again, now she knew why. Leah had loved UNO. All these clues. Even when all her memories had been blocked, the information had been leaking out.
Tony sank into one of the high-backed chairs. “UNO. Well, this is going to be a fun night.”
Jack glanced between Tony and Paige like a rabbit who didn’t know where to run.
Paige sat down, her feet swinging several inches above the floor. She took the cards out of the box and shuffled. “Jack, sit down. Drink your beer.”
“I’ve always wondered how to shuffle like that,” Tony said, staring at the cards, mesmerized.
“You’re trying to tell me that in all your years, you never learned to shuffle?”
“It was never a priority.”
She could understand that. “We went to Yellowstone one year. It’s a long drive from Texas to Montana. I got bored, so I shuffled. According to Leslie and Grandma, I shuffled all the way through Colorado.”
Tony laughed. “They didn’t kill you?”
Jack took a swig of his beer. “What are we doing here?”
“Getting drunk,” Paige said, pausing to swig her own, “and playing cards. So, why are you here? Your boss isn’t curious yet?”
“I got transferred to the Denver office.”
Paige’s eyes went wide. “Dexx, you playing?”
“Next hand,” he called from the other side of the wall.
Closet-sized kitchen. She dealt the cards. “Why did you get transferred?”
“I started the transfer before I went to Louisiana.” Jack started to pick up his cards.
Concen
trating on the game, shuffling, playing, drinking, talking, helped her frayed nerves. The act was comforting and ordinary. “Why did you transfer to Denver?”
“Because of you.” He arranged his cards in his hand, visibly relaxing little by little.
“Uh.” Paige’s hands stilled as she looked up at him. “Me?”
“You’re the only other person I know of who’s kind of like me.” He shrugged deeply, biting his lower lip before he continued. “And your crazy and my crazy seem to work better together.”
“You do realize I’m not interested in you romantically.”
He gave her a dry look. “I’m gay.”
Well. Excellent.
Tony played. “How’d you two meet?”
Paige fanned out her cards. Not stellar, but workable. Her shoulders relaxed with the normality of the game. Blessed Mother, there was something magickal about card games and beer. “He showed up in Louisiana with details about the case before he’d had a chance to study the scene.”
“That’s not suspicious at all.”
“Hey.” Jack changed the color. “I’m new to all this. How many other vampires have you invited into your house?”
“He’s the only one.” She had nothing to play. Crap. The first card she drew, nothing. Second try, she got something. “I just found out about vampires and shapeshifters.”
“Oh. So, I’m not the only one?”
“No. I had my ‘vampires are real?!’ freak-out this morning.”
“Seriously.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. So, you’ve had an interesting day.”
“You have no idea.”
“Special agent of what?” Tony played a yellow six.
Yellow six. Paige smiled. And the only thing she had to worry about was if she could play. Her neck unkinked.
“FBI.” Jack glared at Paige. “And house rules say I have to draw until I get something?”
She nodded, studying her cards. “So, are you here because you heard about our case?”
“No. I finished moving into my apartment yesterday and decided to stop by today. Get free food, maybe?”
“Oh.” She said with mock seriousness. “A leech.”
He frowned as he continued to draw. “So, you have a case?”
“Yup.”
“Need help?”
“Don’t know yet. Did you see anything?”
He shook his head and shoved another card into his hand.
“Were you going to leave any of those for the rest of us?”
“Shut up. So, what’s the case?”
“Demon killed a shifter.” Paige supported her chin in her hand, watching him.
“So, that’s how—Whoa. Shifter?”
“Yup.”
“Just how many of…us are there?” He struggled with the word “us.”
“You mean magickal people?” She wasn’t sure what he was asking.
“Yeah. I guess.”
“I have no idea, but our world just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”
His eyebrows rose then sank. “How’d you find out?”
“She wound up dead. Apparently, shifters had been disappearing for months. She was the first of the missing shifters to show back up.”
“That sucks. How is it that I have most of the deck and still have nothing to play?”
“I have no idea.” He struggled to hold them in his big hand. “You do know how to play, right? Yellow or a six or a fun black card?”
“Shut up. All I’m drawing are blues and reds.”
“You’re not supposed to tell me.”
He crammed another card in his hand. “Also, just so you’re aware, the reason you have no skips, reverses, or draw twos is because I have them all.”
“In any color but yellow?”
“Again.” He plopped down a wild draw four. “Shut up. I want blue.”
Paige drew. “Change the color. Change the color.”
“Because he’s going to win in one turn?” Tony laid down a blue. “You’re not a sore loser or anything, are you?”
Paige stuck out her tongue. “Okay, Mr. Skip. Show us what you’ve got.”
He glared at her and laid down a green three.
“Whew. Mad cards.”
Jack’s nostrils flared, but he shook out his shoulders. “Do you know why the shifters disappeared?”
“Appears they were kidnapped.”
“By who?”
“We think Sven.”
“Seriously?” He reversed it back to her.
“Oh-ho! There you go, Mr. Reverse.”
“Bite me. So, he followed you from Louisiana? That’s not creepy at all.”
“He kidnapped these shifters months ago, then drew me out to Louisiana, then waited for me to return to Denver before killing the shifters off. That’s creepy.”
“Yeah. That’s creepy. Is he leaving you love notes?”
“Yeah.”
“In entrails?” He reversed it back to Tony.
He really did have all the reverses.
“Seriously?” Tony asked. “In entrails?”
“Better yet?” Jack asked, swigging his ale before he continued. “Butterflies exploding from the abdomen.”
“That’s sick.”
Paige puffed out her cheeks as she dove for the pile. Two cards left and she couldn’t play. Damn the game. “You have no idea.”
Playing the game while discussing the case gave her a real sense of calm, one that she’d needed since she’d returned from Louisiana.
“What does he want with the shifters?” Jack asked, laying down another Wild Draw Four.
Paige drew again. Damn that man and all his frelling cards. “We don’t know. But the victim had a chip implanted at the base of her neck, and the only thing they all had in common was that their animal spirit was volatile.”
“Volatile? Hmm. Did the implant help control the spirit animal? Like the implants some people use for sleep apnea?” He played yet another reverse.
“Dang, man.” Tony played on it. “Did you save any for the rest of us?”
“No.”
“Sleep apnea, huh? There’s an implant for that?”
“Yeah.” Jack scratched the back of his neck, studying his cards. “Implant technology is on the rise.”
“It started with X-Files.” Which was the first time she’d heard of it.
“It really didn’t.”
Paige laughed at his serious tone and played. “We don’t know about the implant’s purpose. Maybe? We have someone running tests on it now.”
“Well, that’s good. And that person knows that it was implanted in shapeshifters?”
“Yup.” Strange, strange days. But she wasn’t nearly as worried as she had been just an hour before, so, for as mundane as the game seemed, it was doing what nothing else had to date.
She felt like she could tackle the case again, as if it had been broken down into bite-size pieces.
When it already had been. She’d been dealing with the situation the best she could with what she had. She just wasn’t handling it well emotionally.
In her next lifetime, she was coming back as a man.
Dexx stepped into the room and set a large, green plate in the middle of the table behind the deck. “Dinner is served.”
“Hotdogs, a supper does not make.” Tony laid down a reverse. “Finally.”
“The carbs are in your beer. Stop whining.” She laid down her most dangerous card. A red two. She was going down.
“This doesn’t seem weird to anyone else?” Jack played another red.
Tony smirked and laid down his wild. “Yellow.”
Paige clenched her teeth playfully and drew. “What’s weird?”
“I’m sitting at a table with a vampire, a demon summoner, and a demon hunter. I don’t even know what I am.” He played. “And we’re playing UNO and eating hot dogs.”
Dexx clunked his bottle to Jack’s. “And drinking beer.”
Jack nodded, his eyeb
rows raised as he studied his cards. “And drinking beer.”
Paige smiled. “Yeah, well.” She took a swallow of her beer and gingerly set the bottle down again. “This is our new normal. It’s what we make of it.”
Tony grinned and raised his nearly empty bottle. “Here, here.”
Now, all the they had to figure out was what their “new normal” looked like.
“Finding the new normal,” required the liberal application of alcohol.
Tony located Paige’s whiskey at around eight, but he wanted the good stuff, not the gut-rot she had. Jack decided they needed tequila for margaritas. Dexx wanted a good scotch, and Paige was all out of red wine.
They all trekked half a block to the liquor store to pick up what they needed.
This was a great idea.
Except it was only Monday and they were planning on getting blitzed.
She’d hydrate and hand out aspirins.
Back at her place, they made their drinks and retired to the living room. Paige and Dexx took the maroon loveseat. Tony claimed the over-stuffed tan chair, leaving Jack with the fold up brown papasan chair.
“Who has the coolest super power?” Dexx asked, propping his wine glass with a finger of scotch on his knee.
At least they weren’t in Dixie cups. “I do, without a doubt.” Though, her ability to control her incredibly cool gift? That was in question. The pull of the growing moon rode her hard. Made her feel over-sexed, over-driven.
No. More like an over-charged battery.
Jack frowned at her. “What can you do?”
Paige smirked. “What can’t I do? I’m a freakin’ witch.”
“Whatever that means.” Tony turned in his chair to see her better. “Show us.”
Raising her eyebrows, she scooted up, propping herself on the edge of the loveseat. Blessed Mother. Booze? Plus a stronger gift? She could blow this place up.
Stop it. Her wards would protect her. Anything that became too much would be sloughed off into the protections she’d set up around her apartment. Her broom would help, too.
Famous last words.
She’d never felt the pull of the moon this hard. Maybe it was because she’d been cut off from it for five years while her gift had been growing. Maybe.
Okay. Something simple. Something easy.
A slow smile slipped over her lips as she sank into herself and reached for the elements around her. Being a witch was awesome. Feeling the connection to the All Mother, to the world around her? Feeling the life energy of everyone and everything.
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