whiskey witches 01 - whisky witches (25 page)

“Yeah. Leah needed me, too. I was so stupid.”

“So was I. I was so damned mad. I couldn’t see straight, couldn’t think straight, and it didn’t matter what anyone told me, whether it was my mom, or Nick, or—” He stopped himself and whispered, “Rachel.”

Paige took in a deep breath and slid her attention to the rain. “I keep forgetting you were practically raised in her house.”

“Not really. Just after my dad left. Nick took me in like a stray dog.”

“I feel alone.”

Dexx bit the inside of his lip. “Are you? Or did you isolate yourself?”

She crushed the butt of her cigarette at her feet. “At first, I felt safer on my own. Now, I just feel alone.”

He gave her fingers a squeeze. “Then don’t be.”

He watched her teeter on the edge; the edge of icy apathy and blazing fury.

He knew that edge. He’d walked it before. “Things aren’t gonna get better. These years without her are lost. You’ll never get them back.”

Tears studded her eyes like silent screams attempting escape.

“You can get her back,” he said. “You won’t ever have those years again, but you can have others.”

“What if I can’t? What if I’ve screwed this up beyond salvaging?”

“You still gotta fight. You’re trying to tell me you can’t fight? You?”

She extricated her hand from his and rolled the pack between her palms. “For a while now, its felt like something inside me broke. I didn’t know what it was, didn’t know how to fix it. I thought I was unlovable, but now I know.”

“Know what? If you’re playing something your mother said in your head, stop it. Cease and desist. Immediately. That woman has no business being a part of your life. She has no right in what you think or do. And you should never, ever, ever pay attention to anything she says.”

She closed her eyes for a long moment then opened them again.

“I know what you’re doing. You’re replaying memories long forgotten, re-remembering the shit she fed you. Enough. She wanted to destroy you. She succeeded, not because you’re inferior or deserved it, but because she surprised you by stooping to a level you never thought possible.”

“That’s—” She massaged her temple. “That’s true, but I don’t know how to put it back together again.”

“Me either.” He got up and dragged her to her feet. “We’ll find a way, though. I promise. You are one tough nut and I . . .”

Her gaze rose to meet his.

His hand shook with the intensity of his conviction. “I believe in you. You can do anything you set your mind to.”

She pressed her lips together as the rain fell. Minutes passed. She nodded.

He led the way down the long hall into the worship room. “Hey, guys,” Dexx called. “Time to get out of here. We’ve got a long road ahead of us. Let’s get going.”

Worry highlighted Reece’s blue eyes as he assessed Paige. “Do you think it’s safe? She should rest.”

“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 backseat. 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.