Suzanne met her at the door to her second-floor office. “Paige, I can’t do this anymore.”
No. No, no. That wasn’t what Paige needed to hear just then. “You’re being overdramatic.”
“I assure you, I am never overdramatic,” Cheryl said as her heels clunked on the tiled floor on her way back to her desk. “We’re being blockaded. Again.” She took her seat in her stylish leather office chair and stabbed Paige with her blue eyes. “We haven’t recovered from the last time.”
“I know.”
“The innovations you’ve put through so far are…” She raised her shoulders, then licked her lips, her gaze drifting elsewhere. “Well, they’re rather unique. As unique, I’d say, as our new environment.”
“That’s—” Great, but not what they needed to discuss. “You know how to survive this. I’ve got to handle other things.”
“Like the war on our town?”
“Like that.” But when it was said so bluntly and so loudly, it felt more like a slap to the face, like a wake-up call. “You know what to do.”
Suzanne shook her head and lowered it slightly. “How are we going to get our supplies?”
“I’ll figure that out.” She had ideas. Good ones. But she’d have to go talk to the Blackmans again. That shouldn’t be too hard. “But, just like last time, I need to know what we need. We’re going to need money because we’re not going to steal.”
Suzanne slumped her shoulders and shook her head. “But we simply don’t have the money for supplies. We’re a town. We’re not a kingdom.”
Well, that was something Paige hadn’t thought of. “Okay. So, figure out how you’re going to get that money in. If things need to restructure, then that’s what you need to do.”
The mayor gave her an exasperated expression.
“Look,” Paige said, slashing her hand because she seriously had other things to worry about, “I don’t know how long this is going to go on for. They’re demanding we do something that—” Paige couldn’t believe she was actually going to say this out loud. It made it terrifying and that much more real. “We’re on the brink of something terrible.”
“It won’t go that far. We’re not the Middle East.”
Paige didn’t know much about what had transpired there, or how it had gone to this extent but… “I’m pretty sure that’s what the people who lived there said too.”
Suzanne opened her mouth to say something flippant, but then something flashed in those brilliantly blue eyes and her expression sobered.
“I’ll figure out how to get supplies. You figure out how we’re going to pay for what we need.”
“Fine.” The mayor released a short breath and sank into her chair. “I’ll let you know when I have something.”
“Ditto.” Paige turned and pulled her phone out of her pocket, pulling up a contact she never thought she’d use. Eldora Blackman.
“Hello?” Eldora seemed as confused about the phone call as Paige did.
“Where are you?”
Eldora paused. “At the grocery store.”
“I’ll be right there.” Paige hung up, stashed her phone, and shifted into an owl again.
She preferred walking on four legs. She didn’t have the best balance in the world, and flying really futzed with that. It was something with the bird head, the way it worked. Transitioning from “flying” brain to “walking” brain felt like she was walking in an earthquake or something.
But she did it because it was the fastest way to travel and speed was imperative.
Technically, there was more than one grocery store in Troutdale. Paige knew this all too well because of the last time the town had been blockaded and on lockdown. But she also knew that Eldora Blackman only went to the one closest to her family home, even though it didn’t necessarily have the best prices. It did, however, carry her produce, so maybe she got a better discount. Paige just didn’t know.
She flew in, shifting into a sparrow to do her flyover because she’d already discovered that people freaked out seeing an owl or an eagle flying around.
She spotted Eldora by the frozen vegetables and came in for her landing, shifting to human form as she stepped out.
And tripped into the nearest grocery cart.
She really needed to work on her landings.
Eldora closed the freezer case door, leaving whatever she’d been looking at inside and frowned at Paige with a look that asked what in the world she was thinking.
Paige held up a hand to wave that line of questions off and took a step back, her head still woozy. Flying—while flying—was great. But this part wasn’t getting any easier. “We have a situation.” A slight pain shot through her left eyeball for a split second and then the world went still. Finally.
“So, I heard.”
Eldora had ears everywhere, something Paige didn’t quite understand. Well, she did, but it was the fact that Eldora lived the life of the Amish—not really. A true Amish person didn’t go to the store or own a car, but she certainly appreciated living off the grid. The Blackman Compound resembled a small farming community of ultra-strict religious folk.
Which was okay as long as that ultra-strictness didn’t creep into Paige’s front yard, which it sometimes did.
“We’re being cut off again and need supplies.”
Eldora narrowed her dark eyes and folded her arms over her ample chest.
Paige was pretty certain the woman knew where she was going with this. “The elves cut us off from Underhill.”
“I could have told you that would happen.”
A few startled cries went out at the front of the store, accompanied by a few screeches and a couple of coos.
And a tiny roar and a bird-like squawk.
Her twins had arrived. She was going to murder whoever was on twin duty.
Paige sent out an alpha-mom flare with her emotions, but didn’t look away from Eldora. “I need to know if we can use door magick to get supplies.”
Derrick came up to his mother, tall, dark, and bearded. He smiled at her. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He’d always been nice…er than the others. Technically, he was her brother, which only made their family creepier. But she wasn’t going to hold a grudge against him.
A younger woman came and stood next to him, her black eyes studying Paige with interest.
A fledgling bird came crashing out of the air.
Eldora’s eyes widened with alarm.
Paige just held up both hands and closed her eyes, shaking her head to tell the twins’ grandmother that they were okay.
Rai tumbled to the ground and shifted into a bear cub, rolling as she came to a stop on her butt, blinking her little bear cub eyes dancing with lightning.
Ember tripped on his long tiger tail, taking down a display of ice cream sauces, shifted into a fox to run a few steps, tripped again, and shifted into a wolf pup to make it all the way to Paige.
Paige turned to Eldora with her kids frolicking at her feet, shifting into different animals every time they blinked almost. “Door magick? Supplies? Possible, yes?”
Eldora studied the twins intensely. “Yes.”
“Willing?”
“No.”
Crap. They hadn’t been on the best of terms ever since Eldora had kidnapped Leslie, Leah, and Mandie to get Paige’s attention. She wasn’t going to say she was the type who held grudges but…
Yeah. She held grudges.
“What do I need to do?”
Eldora took in a deep breath and released it.
The young woman stepped up. She wasn’t dressed in normal Blackman female attire with the black dress and the white cap holding back her hair. She dressed like a normal person. Jeans, t-shirt, flip flops. Maybe she was from another area? “I’ll teach Leah.”
Eldora had already tried that approach, trying to get Leah into the Blackman school. The problem with all of that was that the Blackman Compound was rather similar to a c
ult compound and Paige wasn’t into that. “No.”
The young woman tipped her head forward and to the side, looking up at Paige through narrowed eyes. “It’s what she needs.” She snorted. “Frankly, so do you. You come. I teach you too.”
It frankly wasn’t a bad idea. She got her door magick from her father—Eldora’s cheating now-dead husband. She’d never learned how to use it. Well, she kinda did. She sent demons back to Hell using her door magick.
But… the Blackman cult had to be dealt with. Not because cults were bad—because… Right. No. Yeah. They were bad. But because things were getting dangerous and if the town was cut off yet again, they needed everyone on Team Troutdale, not Team Trout-Black… whatever. Okay. That sounded so much better in her head and it just wasn’t going to work—
She was shutting up her inside voice now.
“Your kids join ours in school.”
“With the other kids?” Eldora asked, but this time, her tone wasn’t derogative.
That was a change. Since the Whiskeys had come into town, Eldora had preached about how her witches would never join the other paras in classes. “Yes.” She drew out the word mostly because she couldn’t quite believe she might get a –
“Okay.”
Someone could have hit her with a stick in that moment. “Great. When do we—”
A loud crash sounded at the front of the store. Men shouted, telling everyone to stay down.
The civilians were quiet. A few shouts, nothing more.
This was the drill the American people had practiced for—and the people of Troutdale most of all.
A threat. A live one.
Paige took a step to shift and see what was going on.
A man in DoDO utility black cleared the aisle with a fully automatic assault rifle sited on them.
Eldora took a step forward, her arms out shielding Derrick and the other woman.
“Don’t move!”
Rai cried out in fear.
The barrel of the rifle dropped to sight on her.
Paige’s power coiled along her hands and the world went red. In her head, she knew he’d only followed the sound.
But the mother in her didn’t care.
A man with an assault rifle had entered the grocery store and was pointing it at her baby.
She pulled her head back and released a guttural roar.
The man took a step back and sighted his rifle on her.
The magick took over. Paige didn’t have a conscious thought. Rage. Protective… rage.
In her mind, she saw each of the rifles. Over a dozen DoDO men and women had filed into the grocery store, endangering the lives of the people.
Mario stepped into Paige’s view unruffled. He fixed his shirt sleeve with a smug smile. “We’re here to register you.”
Paige’s world swirled with emotion-charged magick. She barely heard him.
He smiled at her. “Please. Make this difficult.”
Oh. She would.
Not fully knowing what she was doing, she clapped her hands together and an arc of magick flew outward.
Her magick, inky black hands that manifested her door magick also clapped. Doors opened behind each DoDO man and woman and the force of her magick pushed each through.
But she wasn’t done.
On Mario’s way out, she collected a hair from him. Several, actually. Then, taking that hair, she pressed it into the magickal ward protecting the town, whispering her intent. No one from DoDO comes or goes.
Her wards sang out a clear bell-tone.
And then her magick released her.
And she fell to the ground, spent.
Eldora sighed and stood next to her, looking down. “And this is why you need to learn how to control your abilities.”
Paige wasn’t going to naysay her.
She was just going to take a nap.
Clean up on aisle fourteen.
5
Paige was actually pretty much out of it for quite a bit. She was carted around. Derrick carried her.
Eldora doted on Rai and Ember , which should have made Paige concerned since she didn’t trust Eldora in the slightest, but… she just couldn’t get herself to give a shit. She was exhausted.
But not exhausted enough to actually pass out. She was aware.
Just not able to do much.
They all managed to make it to the Whiskey house where she was propped up in Leslie’s comfy chair with a blanket wrapped around her.
Dexx showed up and was really upset. With Paige. With DoDO. With the people there.
Merry showed up and shoved something hot in her hands and told her to drink.
Someone even helped Paige drink from the cup. Could have Merry, or Faith, her eyes didn’t work. She was so tired, her taste buds didn’t even work.
But she finally started really coming to as the room filled with people she knew. Well, kinda. She kinda knew them.
The leaders of the paranormal community of the region.
They were in so much trouble. It finally hit Paige just how bad she’d made the situation. She’d played right into DoDO’s hands. She’d reacted exactly the way they’d wanted.
And she hadn’t even thought about it.
Everyone was uncharacteristically silent.
Paige released a long breath, just now realizing how very, very cold she was. And her taste buds were waking up, telling her that whatever concoction Merry had given her tasted like ass. Great, but it was helping. “I’m sorry,” she said to the quiet room.
Elder Yad raised his bushy white eyebrows, his lips pursed. “Well, it is what it is now.”
The others around the room nodded in various ways. Some nods were open and vigorous. Some hesitant.
But no one was berating her on what she’d done.
Because this was what they’d wanted as well.
She almost sensed a sort of relief, as if the people here were glad this had happened, that the first blow had been struck.
They wanted to go to war.
“Do you have…” Paige didn’t even know how to start this conversation or just how big it really was. All of her experience was as a police detective and as a fighter of evil demons who wanted to take over the world or whatever. She was inexperienced for this. “…any idea how in over our heads we are?”
The room filled with the top-most powerful leaders of the regional paranormals didn’t answer.
Not out loud.
Their faces did, though.
Chuck, the regional high alpha of the shifters, narrowed his blue eyes, his dark black lashes fanned against his cheeks for a moment before he looked back up again, his lips set, a bright light in his eyes as he refused to meet her gaze.
Daenys, the elf queen—yes, a literal elf queen—released a long breath and settled back in her chair, her long white hair pulled over her shoulder.
Smoke steamed out of Ken’s nose, but his dragon eyes leapt with the promise of war.
Duglas, though, took one look at Paige and his expression said he understood where she was going. His clamped lips said he wasn’t going to do much to help her.
Which really didn’t help.
Hell, Paige didn’t even fully understand the impact. She’d grown up in the U.S. as a white woman. Aside from the fear of being raped or molested, she felt perfectly safe. And that whole “being scared of being raped” thing only lasted until after she’d passed the Academy. Once she knew how to defend herself, it never even entered her mind that she should be scared.
To go to the grocery store.
There were others in this country who did fear that, though. They feared going to church, of sending their kids to school.
It was as if the level of violence in their country had led them to this moment.
But she’d honestly thought that the white guys would be shooting at the pigment people. Not that this was better. Like, what a terrible thing to think out loud, but there it
was. That kind of violence was just the accepted norm.
And now paras were the new pigment people.
They had years of proof, statistics and figures to show them just how scared they should be. But in all of those hate crimes, there’d been one thing that gave people the lulled sense of safety.
They’d all been isolated events from individual terrorists.
Now, though? The terrorists were gathered, united, and focused.
Maybe Paige was being scared of the wrong thing. Maybe instead of trying to wrap her head around the wild notion that they were considering the very real possibility of going to war with their nation, she should be scared of the reality that a country that grew and protected terrorists had just set their sights on them.
Was she exaggerating?
Her head said yes. They were delving into crazy territory. This entire thing was insane. Likely just a misunderstanding.
But the newsfeed of her Facebook said she wasn’t. Now that people were talking about this, there were a slew of articles and information pieces about parts of history—the war on pigment people—that had been hidden. And she realized that calling them pigment people wasn’t great coming from a white woman.
But that’s what made them different and bad and she didn’t understand why.
Why did pigment change anything? It wasn’t color. Crayons were color. Spray paint was color.
These people had DNA markers that gave them pigment in their skin. It was the root of who they were like being a redhead. They were still people. People with pigment.
She wanted to stand up and rail against that because it was the “safe” argument. She wanted to shout that race had nothing to do with who a person was, but how society treated them did. She wanted to say that culture could help provide character, but it didn’t make any one person horrible.
But there she was terrified of the ultra-right, white male because the news told her it was okay for them to go around and shoot whoever they wanted and nothing would really be done about it. They wouldn’t be targeted. They wouldn’t be dealt with. It was their choice and their God-given right to be “concerned” enough to “make the world better.”
She had the ability to argue that a human was a human no matter their color. That fight made sense.
Whiskey Storm Page 4
