Whiskey Storm

by F. J. Blooding

  Whiskey Storm

  Whiskey & Colt Chronicles

  Midnight Rising Saga Book 1

  Whiskey

  F.J. Blooding

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations, and events within this book are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to business establishments, actual persons, or events is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Whistling Book Press

  Alaska

  Copyright © 2020 Frankie Blooding

  All rights reserved.

  Per the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form without written permission from the publisher. Please only purchase authorized editions.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Published by Whistling Book Press

  Whistling Book Press

  Alaska

  Visit our web site at:

  www.whistlingbooks.com

  NOTE ON READING ORDER

  Whiskey Witches books can be read all together or separately. If you only enjoy gritty thrillers, you can read just the Whiskey Witches novels without having to read the lighter and more humorous reads of Whiskey Mysteries and Red Star Division.

  We decided to group them into Seasons so our readers would understand the reading order if they wanted to read all the series because there was some definite confusion there. Each series is written to be able to stand on their own or together however you enjoy it best.

  Additionally, each season is written so that you can start in Season 3 without having to read Seasons 1 and 2. The writing is better in the later books as we’ve grown, and we understand that not all readers enjoy having to trudge through weaker writing in order to get to the newest stories. The seasons are another way for us to hit the reset on readability.

  We hope you enjoy! Find out more about our writing adventure in our app: https://fjblooding.mn.co/

  Other books in the Whiskey Witches Universe

  Whiskey Chronicles

  Origins Saga

  Demon Whiskey

  Whiskey Witches

  Blood Moon Magick

  Barrel of Whiskey

  Witches of the West

  Whiskey & Colt Chronicles

  Shiftings Saga

  Desert Shaman F.J. Blooding

  Big Bad Djinn S.S. Wolfram

  Lizard Wizard S.S. Wolfram

  Whiskey on the Rocks F.J. Blooding

  Crossover Event: Sven Seven-Tails

  Double-Double Demon Trouble S.S. Wolfram

  Mirror, Mirror Demon Rubble Hattie Hunt

  Dead Demon Die F.J. Blooding

  Whiskey & Colt Chronicles

  Midnight Rising Saga

  Whiskey Storm F.J. Blooding

  Dexx In a DoDO House S.S. Wolfram

  Midnight Whiskey F.J. Blooding

  International Team of Mystery S.S. Wolfram

  Other Books in the Whiskey-Verse

  Karmic Witch Chronicles

  by F.J. Blooding

  Slimy Little Monsters

  Karma’s Cheap

  Shifting Heart Romances

  by Hattie Hunt

  Bear Moon

  Grizzly Attraction

  Other works writing as K.S. King

  with F.J. Blooding:

  Black Runner

  Mission Skybreak

  Red Sky

  Ghosts of Kalamatra

  Devices of War Trilogy

  By F.J. Blooding

  Fall of Sky City

  Sky Games

  Whispers of the Skyborne

  DEDICATION

  To

  1

  A horrendous crash sounded in the living room followed by the screech of a baby owl and the yip of a baby—Paige didn’t even know what. But she was learning fast as her two-day-old twins were quite good at shifting into any animal they thought of. And how they were able to think of all these animals was absolutely beyond her.

  Paige stepped into the large living room in time to see one of the lamps fall over and smash onto the floor as a downy baby owl launched herself off the side table. A black and grey wolf-pup struggled to walk or run or dance as he yipped at her from the floor.

  Dexx, the baby daddy, snored in the chair in the middle of all of it.

  Paige pulled in deep and barked with her alpha will.

  The twins froze in mid-leap and yip, turning to look up at her with their big eyes. Rai with her big electric blue eyes, and Ember with his big, fiery amber eyes.

  Paige was really just looking forward to getting them past this point in their already short little life.

  Bobby, her God’s prophet toddler son, ran in on his three-year-old legs, a huge grin on his face. “Big noise!” Which was his way of saying trouble was afoot and he wanted to be a part of it.

  Paige still had no idea if God was rolling over in his ethereal grave at the idea of his prophet being raised by witches or if he was laughing it up, dreaming of the day when it was revealed to his followers. She was rooting for the latter, though she doubted He was anywhere in the “caring-verse” anyway.

  Bobby gravitated to the broken light bulb.

  “Dexx,” Paige barked again, keeping Bobby away from the broken glass shards.

  He startled awake, immediately wiping the drool from his five o’clock shadow and sat up. “What did I miss?”

  Paige narrowed her eyes at him.

  His green eyes widened as he took in the room.

  Two lamps were on the ground. One was salvageable. The other was completely destroyed. The striped couch had a huge gouge in it where one of the twins had obviously been something with claws and had fallen off said couch. And the stuff that had been on the coffee table was now on the floor.

  He looked up at her sheepishly, grabbing Bobby. “They were asleep. I swear.”

  Paige growled low in her throat and gathered the twins.

  Ember was now a kitten, which made it immensely easier to carry him.

  Rai had decided to shift back into a human baby. Which, if Paige could just talk to her daughter, she’d have asked for a different shape. Humans were shaped poorly for carrying. How had humans taken over the earth when they were so poorly designed?

  Leah hopped down the stairs, her straight blonde hair kind of “flat hair” bouncing behind her. She reached up and took Rai, giving her baby sister smooches. “How is the cutest baby girl in the whole wide world?”

  Rai chose that moment to squirm out of Leah’s arms and shift into a wolf pup.

  Leah giggled and set her down before she crashed, then led the way to the back door to let her pup-sister into the backyard. “At least that one does her business outside already.” She reached for Ember and goochy-gooochy-gooed his now human nose with hers. “If only Rai could teach this one.”

  He let out a screech-laugh that was only cute on babies and flailed his arms.

  Leah whipped a diaper out of her back pocket and lightly thwapped him in the face with it.

  He startled to a freeze position and then latched onto it with all the strength of a baby much older than him.

  With Ember well in hand by Leah, Paige went to the kitchen to prepare bottles for them both.

  Bobby came bumbling in and pushed one of the kitchen chairs, intent on toppling it.

  “Bobby!” Paige didn’t know whether to shake her head, scream, or pull out all her hair. “Stop. Breaking time is done.”

  He pulled a very pouty expression and clapped one hand to his face, his entire body slumping. />
  This kid was going to be a comedian one day.

  Rai scratched at the door to be let in.

  “Bobby,” Paige pointed to the door.

  The almost three-year-old’s face lit with joy as he galloped to the door to let his sister in.

  Dexx zombie-strolled to the coffee machine and went through the process of making Paige a cup. It wasn’t for him. He liked a little coffee with his sugar and milk and preferred just to drink chocolate milk, if given the choice.

  Paige didn’t do words first thing in the morning. She did grunts and growls and barks and bites and glares and hand gestures. But not words. Occasionally, there’d be a name thrown in there so people understood which person had drawn her wrath that time, but that was about it.

  Her phone rang as she pulled the first bottle out of the boiling pot of water.

  As a new mother, she should be breast feeding. She knew that. But her milk jugs weren’t working. They were producing. Kind of. They hurt. But there wasn’t enough milk in there for one kid, much less two.

  Oh, well.

  She looked at her phone on the counter. Elder Yad.

  “Doesn’t he get that you should be on maternity leave?” Dexx asked, handing her the cup of steaming coffee like it was a sacrificial offering, moving the reusable straw toward her so she could sip out of it without dropping the bottles.

  She hit ignore on the phone, grabbed the other bottle, and took a long, hot pull of the coffee cup as she carefully took it from her lover’s hands. “Thank you,” she whispered gratefully.

  Dexx took one of the bottles from her and went to Rai. “Sorry,” he whispered back.

  Bringing twin shifter witches into the family had been hard on all of them. None of them had really had a chance to sleep. The twins were up at all hours and there was no way to control what they’d even shift into.

  Leslie sleep-stomped into the kitchen, her face blurry with the need to wake up. Her light brown, curly hair was a wild array of…well, wild. She went to the coffee machine and grabbed the cup Dexx had managed to make for her as well. “Those kids are from demons.”

  Paige knew for a fact they weren’t. Paige could summon and send demons back to Hell, something her sister knew all too well. But she couldn’t produce demon children.

  But that brought another thought. A Hell gate had been seared into her bones years ago, making it a struggle for her to… well, be the demon summoner-exterminator. But ever since Sven Seven Tails had tried to destroy the world as they knew it and destroy the Hell gate itself, her bones had been quiet. Like, really quiet. The fight to stop him had put them all on international TV, but at least there weren’t demons trying to possess her all the time. It was pleasantly quiet.

  Her phone went off again.

  Leslie grabbed it on her way to the dining table and handed it to her. “Danny Miller.”

  Crap. That was one phone call she should probably answer. With Ember tucked into her arm guzzling down the bottle, she tucked the phone to her ear. “Hey. What’s up?”

  “I could ask the same.” His tone told her he wasn’t in the mood for small talk. “New babies treating you okay?”

  She didn’t do small talk either. She didn’t understand it, but she did realize that some people needed it to feel like they were relating. “They’re destroying my house one parent-nap at a time.” Time to get to the point. “What’s up, Danny?”

  He sighed. “Have you watched the news lately?”

  “Who watches the news?” No one had time to vet all the stories and, besides, she had newborns tearing up her house.

  He growled a little. Danny Miller prided himself in his news reporting abilities and didn’t believe in this new era of news where the corporation who purchased the station or paper controlled the stories. “Just turn on the TV to Local Six.”

  Paige rose from the table, keeping Ember firmly in hand. The only TV in the house was in the living room and it was rarely on. She fumbled with the remote, unfamiliar with the buttons. She never got much of a chance to watch it.

  The President of the United States was addressing the nation.

  “… in a state of emergency,” she said, her blonde hair barely moving with the breeze. The lapel of her blue suit jacket moved more. “We now know of the paranormal presence and it must be addressed swiftly.”

  Wait. What?

  “How many of them are there?” the President continued. “How great a threat are we facing?”

  Dexx stopped beside her. “What’s this?”

  Paige didn’t bother answering. She knew just as much as he did at this moment.

  “We need the funding and the manpower to address this situation with the force and might it deserves.” The President’s normally distinguished face twisted in anger. “We can’t allow another Troutdale situation to happen again, or become the norm. How many lives were lost?”

  That was a question Paige hadn’t even asked, though, to be fair, she’d had a lot on her hands after that brutal battle. She’d lost her grandmother and had given birth to her twins on Main Street.

  Images of the fight flashed across the TV screen. Sven towered over the street as he pulled in the magickal energies from all around him. Demons swarmed the streets. Shifters and witches and all number of other paranormal creatures fought back, including more than a few normal humans.

  They’d all united that day in order to fight back against Sven’s demon army . Paige led an army of normal people to save the world.

  How long had the President waited for something like this to happen? They’d always kind of felt it, ever since she’d won the vote. There was a deeper pressure on the paranormal communities to remain hidden.

  “I’m issuing an Executive Order giving these paranormals four days to register with the government. They will be assessed and provided new homes in more secure areas. I’m—”

  Dexx took the remote and turned off the TV, his face a boil of rage. “Relocated? Secure areas?”

  Hadn’t the U.S. tried this already? With the Japanese? And hadn’t that ended badly?

  Well, not for the government. For the Japanese Americans, it had.

  Rai’s fingertips buzzed with electricity as she suckled on her bottle, her eyes moving between her parents. Even her eyelashes danced with lightning.

  Electricity and phones were a bad mix. Paige stepped away from her daughter. “How far is she going to go?”

  Danny was quiet for a long moment. “We’ve already received word she’s got a few areas set up. They’re prepped and ready.”

  “What kind of areas?” Resorts? Reservations? Prisons? “What do you mean?”

  “Areas of ‘relocation.’ I don’t know more yet and my source has to be really careful so her cover isn’t blown.”

  Paige understood that, but just hearing him repeat the word ‘relocation’ sent a chill of fear down her spine. “But no word on what they’re planning?”

  “No. But… Tell me you’re going to do something about this.”

  She really wanted to say no, that she was on maternity leave, that she was trying to bond with her two little world destroyers. “Yeah.” She offered a few more vagaries and hung up.

  Dexx made movements to take Ember.

  She moved away, the bottle propped up with her chin and dialed Elder Yad. If she was going to save the world, she was going to do so with her kids beside her. Because…

  Seriously. She couldn’t choose anymore. She needed to be an adult and a mom and a responsible person in society all at the same time. She’d just have to figure out how to make it work.

  Elder Yad answered quickly but said nothing.

  She had no idea if he was having an issue with his Bluetooth headset or if he could even hear her, but she wasn’t going to wait forever, either. “Gather those we need. My house. Lunch.”

  The line disconnected.

  Well, that just left cleaning the house and preparing a meal for a small invading
army. Both of which she hated.

  Coming up with a plan to save the world?

  Well, she was getting better at that.

  2

  “Well, babe,” Dexx said with a tired smile that was only half as sultry as it normally was, “as much I love just hanging out with you, I’ve gotta get some work done before everyone descends on this place.”

  Paige stared at him a little poleaxed. Not because it was strange that he was working, but because she realized she wasn’t. Work had become such a normal thing to her. She’d fought to get more parenting time. She had. But now she was staring down the double barrels of parenthood and it was a little intimidating.

  But that also meant it was time to get all the kids to school, too. She gave her husband a kiss and they and Leslie all worked to wrangle kids into cars.

  Paige had the twins strapped down in car seats only because they were currently sleeping in human form. It was her turn to take Leah and Mandy to school. They were in the same grade, so they both went to the same school. Kate and Tyler were with Dexx, and Bobby and Kammy were with Leslie, mostly because there just wasn’t any more room in Paige’s little silver sedan. Baby car seats took a lot of freakin’ space.

  Leah and Mandy were having some sort of debate. Leah was wedged between her siblings and Mandy was riding shotgun, and Paige had no blasted idea what either of them was even talking about. They were speaking in some code she didn’t get.

  She pulled up to the high school—the mundane’s high school—and Mandy and Leah spilled out. Except that Leah woke Rai who decided it was time to shift into a kitten and escape. Which was…great.

  Paige was holding up the drop-off line. Not that there was a big one. A lot of the high schoolers drove.

  Paige didn’t even want to think about that. Having Leah and Mandy the same age was like having another set of twins. Those two were going to be driving at the same time.