whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick (13 page)

“You can read people?”

“I’m a plant. What most people don’t know is that plants are super sensitive to the moods around them. People vibrate differently, and I can catch that.”

Cool. “Can you describe him?”

Dumping ice into the tall, plastic cup, Kris put a lid on it and handed it to Paige with a straw. “Tall. Wore a black, leather jacket every single time. Pale blonde hair. Had an accent.”

Paige flattened her lips. Sven. “Did he ever leave anything here?”

Kris nodded. “I thought it odd, but I kept it anyway, just in case he came back.” She ducked beneath the counter and pulled out a red envelope.

Frowning, Paige opened it, shaking her head. She jutted her jaw, preparing herself for what might be inside.

A card with an inspirational picture of a sunrise over purple mountains. Inside was a handwritten message.

You’re doing well, as I knew you would. You are the one, Paige. I know you are, but you have to become stronger. Learn. Time is precious, but only in your world as it remains now. Use it wisely. S.

She handed it to Dexx. “Was there anything else? Did anything odd happen the day David disappeared? Anything he said? Did this guy show up again?”

Kris shook her head and sniffed, her nostrils audibly stuffed. “Uh, oh, wait.” Her brown eyes shifted from side to side as she recalled something. “It’s like I can feel something, but I can’t quite remember.”

Paige narrowed her eyes. Demons had the ability to wipe memories. “Would you…” She sucked in her lips and shook her head. As a witch and a demon summoner, winning their trust was going to be difficult. “It sounds like someone erased your memories. I can see, if you like.”

Kris jerked back, grabbing the counter.

“I know.” Paige held up her hands. She really didn’t want to step on toes, but at the same time, if someone had walked in and erased her memories, a clue as to what was going on could be buried inside Kris’ head. “I understand. There are other ways. Talk to Sam. See if he can help unlock those memories. In the meantime pay attention to your dreams. Write them down.”

Kris leaned against the counter again, her shoulders loosened. “Dreams.”

“Yes. Your subconscious mind is amazing and a lot harder to wipe clean than you’d think. But.” Paige held up her finger. “It’ll speak to you in its own language, which isn’t yours. So, write down
everything
. Colors. Objects. Where you’re going. Who you’re with. If they look like the person you think you’re talking to. The sky. Sounds. Smells. Everything. Who’s driving the car. Did you lose the airplane? The condition of the toilet.”

“Okay.” Kris breathed a sigh of relief. “And you won’t rummage through my mind without my permission?”

Paige nodded. “I never would. You’ll just have to get to know me.”

The barista nodded, her eyes wide, her lips pinched. “Yeah. That’ll have to go both ways.”

“Roger, roger.” Paige saluted with her coffee. “I’m looking forward to it.”

T
hey continued through the town, talking to friends, relatives, coworkers, fellow students, but nothing else popped up. No more clues. Even interviewing Elizabeth Harwood’s siblings yielded nothing.

“He’s following you.” Tony’s tone was grim as he pointed the car down the mountain. “The card was left weeks ago, but the business card? There was only one and it was left in the one location you were instructed to go.”

Paige gritted her teeth. “Yeah. Seems like.”

“Which meant he was there. Today.”

“How’d he know we were going to visit Sam first?” Frustrated rage swept through her. She slammed her fist against the door.

Tony shook his head.

“Unless he’d followed us and then nudged Sam to—damn it!”

“I’m really gonna need you to finish that sentence, Pea,” Dexx said carefully from the back.

“Demons are capable of gentle mind-control.” She pressed her fist to her lips, trying not to hit the door again.

Thump. “Great.”

Paige glanced at Tony who was looking at Dexx in his rearview mirror. “He
was
there. Sam telling you two to go to the deer stand? Sam taking me out on my own?” She pressed her frozen fingertips to her brow. “I have
got
to stop being so stupid!”

“You’re being a little hard on yourself, Pea,” Dexx said.

She shook her head. “I’m the demon summoner.”

“And without your scry globe, you’re just as blind as the rest of us, so, please, Pea. Let it go.”

“Globe?” Tony asked.

“Scry globe,” Paige grumbled. “I used to be able to see where demons, angels, and other magickal people were around me, but now, I can’t.”

He paused, then took a right at the light heading into Golden. “Well, that could be very helpful.”

“Yeah.”

“So,” Tony said, “nothing shows up? At all?”

“Nope. It sees nothing.”

“Huh.”

“Yeah.”

“How would we show up on your globe?”

Good question. “How big is your population? I mean, would it be common to have paranormals almost anywhere?”

Tony nodded and shook his head at the same time.

“Well, when I was in Louisiana, I didn’t see anything other than demons, angels, and witches.”

“Hmm.”

“Yeah.”

“Like I said,” Dexx said, “you’re blind just like the rest of us. So, stop kicking yourself so damned hard.”

She couldn’t help herself. Demons were supposed to be
her
specialty. When called on to deal with them, she
should be
able to, but she had completely failed today. He’d been there. Sven was here. Tailing her. Watching her. She checked the side mirror.

Tony glanced at her. “No one’s tailing us.”

Her phone rang. With a sigh, she picked it up and answered. “Whiskey.”

“Hey, it’s Danny. Danny Miller.”

The reporter. She groaned. “Hey, Danny.”

“You really have nothing you want to share on this one?”

“Not really.”

“But you know I can help.”

“I don’t know how you can on this one, Danny. Really. Just…” The man was good. Had a good head on his shoulders. Had a good moral compass, a good heart. She couldn’t let him get tangled up in this one. “Take a beat.”

“Werewolves.”

Paige’s heart stopped along with her brain. She couldn’t even figure out what she should say to that.

“I know. I’ve been tracking this story for a long time.”

“How long?”

“Since my sister was bitten.”

Well, uh. That changed things. Didn’t it? She could talk to him about it. Couldn’t she?

“Look. You help me. I’ll help you.”

Tempting. “How can you help me?”

“There are avenues I can follow that you can’t.”

“Like?”

“Like, if you could get me the name of the person directly involved, I could gently inquire about his transactions.”

Gently inquire. While the information might be good, it could also get him into a lot of trouble. The kind she couldn’t bail him out of. But the idea had merit. “Which I can’t do without proof and a warrant.”

“And a really interesting conversation with a judge.”

Yeah. That part. Never went well.

“You’re in a strange position, Detective. I understand that. But, really, I
can
help.”

“What’s your angle?”

“My sister didn’t survive.” His voice deepened a little as he continued. “I need to know if these things are evil.”

“They’re not.”

“Well,” he said, his tone clipped. “My sister’s dead.”

“I can look into her case if you want.”

He paused. “That would be nice. Can I have that name?”

“It’s not going to help you find her. He’s not connected.”

“It’ll help with your investigation, won’t it?”

She closed her eyes for a moment. The debate was over before it started. She needed information. “Sven Seven Tails. That’s the only the name I know him by, though I’m sure he’s using another alias.”

“I’ll see what I can dig up.” Excitement sizzled through the phone.

“Thanks. And, Danny?”

“Yeah, Detective.”

“Don’t be a headline.”

“Yeah.” He paused. “Yeah, okay. You got it.” He ended the phone call.

She swallowed and put the phone in her lap.

“Another human?” Tony’s voice boiled with anger.

Dexx cleared his throat, the leather of the seat squeaking as he fell back. “What’s Sven’s game?”

Paige ran everything she knew through her mind.

All the shifters who had disappeared were described as sweet until their spirit animal came out, at least lately. Some had been shifters for years, gaining experience as the decades passed, but then something had changed. Their spirit animals had become aggressive.

The younger ones who had been taken had similar stories, except that they didn’t have decades of experience to fall back on. They were just discovering this new world.

What did they all have in common?

Volatility in their paranormal abilities.

What did she have in common with them?

Volatility in her gift, but only
after
Sven had cast his spell.

She looked toward Tony. “We need to go back to last night’s crime scene.”

“Okay.” He frowned. “Done. Why?”

“Last night, I’d been tracking the demon. This is Sven.”

“Who
isn’t
a demon.”

“Oh, he is. Just a completely different kind of whack-job. In Louisiana, he had human lackeys doing his dirty work.”

“So,” Tony said, the crow’s feet around the one eye she could see crinkling, “what does that mean?”

“They were how I caught him before. If I can track the demon who killed Elizabeth Harwood, we could find where the shifters are being held.” Goddess bless, she felt so
stupid
, which wasn’t helping. When she felt like this, she did things half-cocked, without thinking. “That demon last night looked right where I was standing when I was reviewing the scene. He’d known to look for me because he was going to plant his handprint there.”

“That would be a great lead.”

She shook her head.

“He
could
lead us to the real prize.”

True statement. If Sven allowed it.

“Wait, ‘when you were reviewing the scene.’ You mean, when you got that crazed psycho look on your face after you touched the dumpster?”

She glared at him. “I don’t have a crazed psycho face.”

“You do,” Dexx said. “But it’s cute. You know, when you’re not
really
crazed or psycho or, well, you know, possessed. Otherwise, it’s just adorable.”

Tony tucked one corner of his lips in. “How does that work? How do you review?”

She’d never actually told anyone before. A real partner. Two of them. So weird. “Usually after something like last night, a major event, the demon will have an excess of energy. If they touch something, I can touch it and review it like a time reel. Well, I call it a time reel. It’s like the moment that created the excess energy is recorded in that handprint.”

He frowned at her. “Huh. Starbucks?” He pointed just ahead and to the left at the sign.

She shook her head. “Kris was right. Her coffee really is better.” Which sucked because she and her really good coffee were up the mountain. Damn her and her “special roasting process.” It wasn’t just bunk.

“Okay.” Tony glanced in his rearview and shifted lanes. “So, what did you see?”

“The victim was walking down the street. The demon caught her by the throat. She fought. Her eyes glowed. Her nails grew. Then, he whispered something to her, she stopped fighting, and he snapped her neck. He then laid her on the ground, looked right where I was standing, and tucked the note under her arm.”

“That’s sounds like something Sven would orchestrate,” Dexx muttered.

“It does, but that demon wasn’t Sven.”

“And we have DNA,” Tony groaned.

Paige’s stomach twisted. “Yeah.”

“DNA of the wrong person.”

“Yeah.”

“Well.” Tony released a slow puff of breath. “We’re a bit lucky.”

“How so?” Luck was one thing she’d never really had an overabundance of.

“We have a paranormal in the lab.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She’s a fox spirit. Very bright. Good kid. I’ll let her know what we’re dealing with. She knows how to deal with things.”

“Great. Okay. We should—” Her phone screamed, “I’m a gummy bear. Oh, I’m a gummy bear,” as loudly as it could from her belt. Paige winced and pulled her phone out of the clip, swiping to answer. “Hey, Les.”

“Paige.” Leslie’s voice trembled.

Paige had been about to tell her sister that now wasn’t a good time, but Leslie’s voice
never
trembled. She turned to face the window and lowered her voice. “What happened? Is it the baby? Are you in labor?”

“Where are you?” Leslie asked instead. “You sound like you’re in a tin can.”

“We’re driving from an investigation.”

“Oh. I should let you get back to that.”

“Leslie.” Paige kept her voice steady and firm. “What happened?”

Silence met her question, then a sigh before Leslie whispered, her accent thick, “I was scammed.”

Paige cringed. “How much did they get?”

“Almost two thousand dollars.”