Whiskey Storm

by F. J. Blooding

  Saying the people should be scared of her husband?

  Her heart stopped in her chest as she turned and looked at him.

  They didn’t discuss it much, but he was white, Christian, and ultra-right conservative. Or, at least he had been before he’d been bitten. He hated the government, didn’t go to church regularly, didn’t want people taking his illegal guns because he was a pretty, special princess of a very hot man.

  But if she really went down this rabbit hole—and she didn’t want to—she’d have to realize that her husband was someone others might actually fear.

  Those people—not just DoDO—though that’s who’d come into their grocery store—were going to target her kids. Neighbors. Other people’s husbands. Other people’s friends.

  Even if they won against DoDO, even if they won against the government, they still would have to fight against the random-assed attack that could happen at any time, any place.

  Paige didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to brainstorm. Her energy reserves were so low that her anxiety was rearing its ugly head and making her think dark thoughts.

  Or was it that she was so tired, she was finally able to see the truth of their situation clearly?

  “We have to get in front of this,” Paige said into the quiet room. “We have to change the story.” Even though that wouldn’t change the fact that they were the new Muslim, or the new black man, or the new Mexican immigrant.

  “How?” Chuck asked equally quiet.

  Maybe this was just a misunderstanding. Even though she knew it wouldn’t be. This nation prided itself for its Christianity and not its freedom of religion. The ultra-right base liked to think of themselves as the purifiers of the nation, the people who kept everyone clean and good.

  And being a witch was bad. They burned those.

  Being a different religion was bad. They stoned those.

  Being a different sexual orientation was bad. They… well, they did everything to those.

  Being a person who was also a wolf when the whimsy took them? Or being naked in the streets because they were just a tiger a second ago?

  No. They were going to need to do more than just “educate” people. Yes. Maybe the government. Educate them. Show them that paras weren’t dangerous. And then worry about the people who refused to learn later.

  Because no amount of knowledge would sway them which made them so very, very terrifying.

  The great United States sure looked a hell of a lot differently when the laser sights were on her instead of nameless others. The power of the United States didn’t lie in the bravery of its people. The people would fail them.

  It lay in the fear and acceptance of its people as the people of color had proven, and the average woman proved, and as the trans people proved.

  Kind of.

  No.

  It wasn’t.

  “Okay. Look.” Paige let the blankets fall as she sat up straighter. “We need to find a way to inspire people to…”

  “Rise up?” Faith asked, the scar along her cheek twitching.

  “Be better?” The ultra-right was a rather small percentage of the overall population. They were just really loud and were usually the terrorists, though no one was allowed to call them that. Most people fell solidly in the middle. They just wanted life to not suck. “If we can get people to talk about this? To get information out there?”

  “Like they did for the Black Lives Matter?” Ryo twirled his fingers as air played around him. For that matter, it looked like air was playing through him. “I think we need a better plan.”

  Except… “Race has been in our blood for generations.” Which was sad and horrible, but that distinction mattered. It was harder to fight race because people grew up with it. They breathed it in their own different ways. Most didn’t even realize it, but everyone was forced to think or feel or deal with race during their lifetime. Also, racism was now in the DNA. It wasn’t proven, but it did make sense as to why it was so hard to fight. The lessons learned in the past were handed down through the generations through DNA. Maybe. Not always. “We’re new.” And not in the DNA, not in the histories. Less ammunition meant the fight might be easier to win.

  Daenys chuckled and steepled her fingers. “What is your plan? You have no supplies and you are not using Underhill.”

  “I already knew that. But while you’re worried about Underhill, we’ve got entire villages and towns—maybe even other cities—who might be under the same attack.”

  “They don’t have a witch like you,” Dexx said.

  “Agreed. Which only means they’re worse off.” She needed to get them to understand this. “They’re not being blockaded. They’re being hunted.”

  “Or they are living their lives in beautiful quiet,” Krin, the earth elemental, said, her dark skin gleaming in the soft sunlight streaming through the windows.

  “Maybe.” Paige doubted it though. “DoDO has been studying us for years. They were developing a collar to suppress the shifter animal and it’s in play. If they’ve developed it that far, then they’ve been at this for a long time. How much are you willing to bet that others are safe? That they’re doing better?”

  Yad licked his wrinkled lips and look at her. “Well, then, let’s hear your plan.”

  She didn’t have one, but it didn’t matter. She was trained now to think on her feet. She had years of experience.

  These powerful leaders of the other paras didn’t.

  “We need the media. We can’t be silenced. This has to get out.”

  Ken pulled out his phone. “I can handle this. I own a couple of news stations, and I know several others who should be willing to air. I will need someone here, though.”

  “I’ve got someone in mind.” Paige had no idea what dragons did. Ken was the first one she’d ever met, but she’d gathered they lived a long time and gathered a lot of wealth. “Also, I’m going to need to talk to someone high up in government.”

  Yad shook his head. “I have a few contacts.”

  “The President,” Merry said with a pained look on her face as though she already knew she’d regret saying it out loud. “You need to talk to the President.”

  “Of the United States.” She had to be kidding.

  “Yes.” Merry’s tone was dark and laced with don’t-be-an-idiot-ness. If that was a thing. “I can make that happen. But in order for that to happen, you’re going to need to drop the wards.”

  “Absolutely not,” Dexx said, his alpha will seething forward.

  Merry lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “Then she’s not getting into the White House.”

  Paige couldn’t believe it. In order to talk to the President, she’d have to endanger the lives of the people of her town, her kids, other people’s kids, other people’s people.

  “How badly do you want this?” Merry asked.

  She had to try. War was… it was a dumb idea. If there was a peaceful solution, she had to find it. “When can you get the flight ready?”

  Merry just gave her a tight smile and turned to Eldora. “I trust we can get a door to the airport?”

  The room exploded in conversation finally, but Paige wasn’t listening. She stared at her sleeping baby girl nestled in the corner of the green-striped couch.

  She had to make the world a safe place.

  And she would.

  6

  Paige had to do a few things first, though. She wasn’t going to just open the floodgates to terrorists without setting a few things in motion first.

  And she made sure that Mario and his people could see her.

  She spent some time with Merry learning about blood magick. It really was pretty benign, but the way she preferred to use it was what took it too far. Merry was a murderer, something Paige couldn’t afford to let herself forget. The woman killed people for her own personal gain.

  Eldora had other plans for booby traps. “Phoebe calls them trip portals.”

  “Wh
at?” Because, honestly, that sounded like science fiction.

  Eldora didn’t expound. She just went to the ward and set up two rocks about a door’s width apart. She touched them with her hands and a door opened, inky black, undulating with darkness.

  “Where does it go?”

  “This one?” Eldora frowned at it as she straightened. “Hong Kong. Lovely restaurant. One of my favorite places.”

  “You’ve been to Hong Kong?”

  Eldora gave Paige a tight smile and turned away.

  “Okay. So, this door is just going to stay here? Like this?” Paige struggled to see how this was a good booby trap. “Everyone can see it.”

  “Exactly.” Eldora walked out to the left, placing down other rocks, drawing a line along the ground connecting each one like connect the dots.

  Oh. Well, if she was connecting the entire area to the door, then that was a good booby trap. Except for the fact that Paige was supposed to be dropping the wards.

  Wait. She had an idea. “What if…” Okay. So, she had to let them in. And she was kind of okay with that. She didn’t want to keep people out indefinitely. There were all kinds of people who might need or want to enter their town. Family members. Refugees.

  Soldiers for the cause.

  Blessed Mother, she didn’t want to go that far.

  But if they would trip on that and then automatically send themselves to Hong Kong, then it wasn’t much of a protection. It was a cell of their own making.

  All they really needed was insurance to ensure that DoDO and anyone else, really, didn’t do something stupid like hurt one of their people. A few people would have to be cleared of that, obviously. Dexx and his team because they had to keep the order and she trusted them not to take it too far. Dexx was getting better at his shift and more in control of himself. As was his team—well, not in more control of their shift. They were becoming a more reliable team, which was what they needed.

  Eldora stopped and watched Paige as she thought her way through the process, patiently waiting.

  Paige took in a deep breath and looked up with her witchy sight, her—their wards gleaming like an oil slick in the sky. She could almost see the individual strands of each person who had added their own personal strength to protecting their town.

  Yeah. This could work.

  “We could set up—” A series of warnings? What would she do? How would she program the ward—

  She didn’t have to program them. They almost had a conscious. Not like a complete person, but there were people, real, living people holding the grounding point for one of their ward trees. They were safely in another dimension, but that didn’t matter. They’d traded themselves to create that grounding point, inserting their personalities into the ward.

  And each person of their town had offered a piece of themselves into the wards as well.

  These wards reacted to threats. They didn’t just slam into place. They went after those they thought—no. That the people who were connected to the wards thought were bad.

  Then, how had Mario and his men made it to the grocery store?

  Because Paige and Dexx and everyone else knew they had to let them in.

  And she hadn’t really done anything powerful when she’d kicked them out. She’d touched the wards.

  The wards had kicked them out.

  She’d just knocked herself out with… she didn’t even know what, but she needed to figure that out because she couldn’t afford to allow herself to be pushed past her go-points again.

  Eldora bit her lip, then rolled her head on her neck, stretching it out.

  Right. She was still waiting.

  “We use the wards.”

  Eldora narrowed her eyes, then as her eyes relaxed, her lips parted. Then as they closed again, she squinted her eyes with a frown. “I am not following.”

  Paige walked Eldora through her thought process, probably not very coherently. She wasn’t great in making words happen when she was thinking through complex situations and as simple as the wards appeared to be, they were complicated. So much more than she’d ever thought possible.

  Eldora nodded carefully for a moment and touched the door she’d just created. It flared to life with a black light, something Paige hadn’t even thought was a thing, but she was seeing it with her own eyes, so it definitely was. “Merry, we need you.”

  The doorway remained inky blank and then Merry filled the frame wearing a form-fitting red business dress and high heels. The woman knew how to dress.

  For the city. As soon as she stepped onto the Blackman farmland, her heels dipped into the earth.

  Paige kept her giggle inside. Not that she was a giggler. She wasn’t, but that was funny. Powerful woman sinking due to her power heels.

  Okay. She was tired and overwhelmed and finding stupid things funny. She needed a sandwich before she talked to anyone else.

  They ran Merry through their plan and Merry smiled, transforming her face and stripping away years of age. “That is very good, Ms. Whiskey.”

  So, they were back to that again. She should be okay with the distance, any distance between the two of them. But Paige was starting to feel a connection growing between them, and that could be dangerous. Merry wasn’t a good person.

  But maybe that was exactly what they needed now.

  Together, they combined their magick, which was getting easier with the continued practice, and reached up to touch the wards. Not the grounding tree centrally located on the Blackman lands. No. The wards themselves.

  They answered in a thousand voices. It spoke to them through visions and a mash of memories. Paige didn’t know how long they talked to the wards, but when they disconnected, her stomach rumbled as if it hadn’t been filled in days… and the sun was sliding downward.

  The wards were willing to allow people in and they would look for signs of violence and if there were signs of violence from outsiders, they would be transmitted via Merry’s door to Hong Kong or Russia or North Korea or a deep pit at the bottom of the ocean. Wherever Merry happened to point her door to.

  Merry smiled at Paige, looking pleased and a little proud. “I’ll have the plane ready by the evening.” She stepped through the door and it flashed with a black light again.

  Eldora touched her door again. Paige didn’t see anything change, but it felt like it was pointed elsewhere again. “We need to work on your door magick.”

  “I agree.” But unfortunately there were a lot of things she needed to do first. “When I get back?”

  “Leah?”

  “Yes. You enrolling your kids in our schools?”

  “Phoebe is working on that as we speak.”

  “Excellent.” Who was Phoebe to Eldora anyway? No. No. She didn’t need to know. She had a town—all the paras to save. She turned around to shift and fly out of there. “Coordinate with Leah to see what times she has free and I’ll make sure she knows to make time for it.”

  “Thank you.”

  Except that Paige really didn’t trust Eldora just yet. “If you try anything…”

  Eldora nodded, her dark eyes clear but free of malice. “I will not.”

  Paige hoped so. She shifted into bird form and headed toward Red Star Headquarters.

  Paige wondered if it would ever feel strange to step foot inside this building and not feel like she’d been booted. She had this strange, sick feeling like someone had pushed her out—her husband, even though they weren’t officially married yet—and had taken her place.

  But Dexx was doing a good job at keeping the order.

  He’d fought it. He’d wanted to just be the guy who chased after bad guys and refused to do his paperwork. And Paige had tried to give him that life.

  But he’d quickly discovered that the Red Star Division was more than just a job. It was more than just a thing to do that helped pay the rent.

  It was a group of people that she had brought together and that he’d made into a team dedic
ated to protecting the paras and enforcing the laws on them to ensure peace within their town.

  The cubical walls were still lined with greenery, making it feel less like a police bullpen and a little more inviting. Of the people on the Red Star team, only one was a legit police detective.

  But they were all busy and she didn’t have the twins with her, so they looked up and said hello with their faces, but they didn’t get up and greet her.

  Which was okay.

  Dexx was in the office—in what had been her office, and then Tony’s office. But it was most definitely Dexx’s now. There were shelves up with… things. She didn’t know. A lot of cars and car parts. The man loved cars and that was about it. Well, cars and guns. And knives. And swords. He had an obsession with swords that she just didn’t understand.

  He saw her coming and got up, meeting her at the door and wrapping her in his arms.

  Those arms could put her soul back together again.

  “You feeling better?” he muttered into her hair.

  “Yeah.”

  He pulled away and studied her with his green eyes, Hattie—his spirit animal—flashing through a little. “Really?”

  “Yes.” She pulled away from him and took a seat. “I need to talk to you about a few things.”

  Dexx usually took the seat next to her, but this time, he took the chair behind the desk. Power move. “You’re not letting them in.”

  “I am, but I’ve taken precautions.”

  “Really.”

  “Yes.” She walked him through what she and Eldora and Merry had done. “And I’m flying to D.C. tonight.”

  Dexx licked his lips angrily as he looked away. “I’ll take care of the kids, I guess.”

  “I, um…” This was going to be a fight. “I’m taking them with me.”

  “Over my dead body.”

  “Don’t be dramatic.”

  “Dramatic?” His eyebrows shot up and the hand on his desk flexed with cat claws. “You’re trying to tell me that you’re taking our kids out of the safety of our town and I’m the one being dramatic? You’re being stupid.”