whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick (20 page)

J
ohn took Kevin home. Dexx had disappeared, leaving Paige and Karl in the office alone.

“Sheriff Karl…” Paige’s brain worked too fast to form questions quickly.

Karl raised her eyebrows and waited.

“What would Sven gain by removing your spirit animal?”

Rubbing her face, Karl shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“What power, what benefits do you receive for having an animal spirit?”

“Strength?” Karl shrugged, flopping her hand on her desk. “The ability to work with the elements?”

The good sheriff had been able to use her empathic abilities through her spirit animal to defuse a situation. Imagine that ability in the hands of a demon.

Crap. “Will you update me if more of them return?”

Karl nodded and turned to her computer.

Paige entered the hub of the police station.

Dexx perched on a policewoman’s desk, a relaxed smile on his face.

Paige read the officer’s nametag as she approached. “Jakobs, do you have some place we can hole up and put up a board?”

The officer nodded, her black hair shining in the overhead light where she had it pulled tight to her scalp. Lady cops and buns. There weren’t a lot of options when it came to hair when in uniform. She pointed to a conference room on the other side of the building. “You can take that. If you need supplies, just ask and we’ll get them for you.”

“Thanks.”

Jakobs smiled and turned back to her computer.

Dexx got up off the desk and walked behind Paige. “What are we trying to figure out?”

Paige walked around the desks and closed the door to the conference room behind her. No white board, but there was a wall covered in maps. She didn’t it, though. She was reviewing the files in her head. “What Sven’s after.”

“Ah. I see.”

“We have Elizabeth Harwood’s murder. No other bodies.”

“That’s something to be thankful for.”

“Exactly, but why? In Louisiana, every time we turned around, there was another body.”

Dexx winced. “He chose two psychopathic humanoids to do his dirty work, and they got a bit over zealous?”

That was true. Sven had chosen two people, the lead investigator on the police force and a witch, to help him with the killings. They’d done a great job in providing a crumb trail for her to follow, but after they’d garnered her attention, they’d kept going. The objective, as far as Paige could see, was to get Paige down there, to kidnap her, and then to cast the spell into her bones.

They’d managed to accomplish all of that quite quickly.

But the bodies had kept falling. And Sven had been one of the people dropping those bodies.

So why was he being so careful here?

Her phone rang. She unclipped it and looked at the caller ID. Danny. “Hey, Danny. Are you freaking out on me?”

Danny paused before his answered, but when he did, his tone was laced with incredulity. “Demons?”

She hadn’t mentioned that before? “Um, yes.”

“You want to explain something to me?”

“Like?” There was just so much information and not everyone was cut out to know it all.

“They’re real?”

“Yes.” Easy one.

“Do they possess people, like on TV?”

Nothing was real on TV, not even reality TV. “Kind of.”

He was quiet for another moment.

She let him have his time to process.

“Okay. I found a little—no, wait. Should I be worried?”

“About?”

“Demons overtaking the world?”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” She still had to find a way to fix herself, but no. She
would.
She had to. “What did you find?”

“His cell phone number.”

Oh, really? “What is it?”

He gave it to her. “He’s not keeping a low electronic profile. It’s as if he doesn’t care if he gets caught.”

No. Sven knew Paige’s resources and knew that her hands were tied when it came to that sort of thing. The government might be able to track every single American down and know how many squares of toilet paper they used, but the Police Force? The people in the trenches who could actually
use
that information to catch bad guys and stay alive? No. Information was power, and the little people didn’t need it.

Sven kept a low magickal profile because he knew that’s how Paige
could
track him.

“Okay. Can you ping his phone?”

“Next time he makes a call? Yes.”

“Excellent. Tell me where he is when he does. Is he circling any particular area?”

“Yeah. He’s staying within a two mile radius of Kipling and Hampden.”

Chills ran down Paige’s spine. That’s right where she lived.

“I’ve got his credit cards pinged to give us updates on his location. I’ve got his checking account pinged.”

“He has a checking account?”

“Yeah. Want to know his balance? This guy has quite the portfolio. He’s not hurting for money.”

Why would a demon need money?

Money was power.

But he was a demon. Demons didn’t need money. They could coerce any human with very little effort.

Something about that tapped her skull like droplets of water. What was she missing? “Anything else?”

“All kinds. He has a network of people. My guy is going to see if he can clone this guy’s phone—”

“Don’t! It’s too dangerous.”

“He’ll never know she’s there.”

“Your guy is a girl?”

“Best I know. Trust me. She’s a grifter with amazing talents.”

Amazing grifters were usually latent sensitives who could inadvertently read other people’s minds or emotions. That’s how they could swindle almost anything out of nearly anyone. But a demon? “Just remind her he’s a demon and a murderer.”

“And murder—what?”

“Recall I did warn you he was dangerous.”

“You did.”

“I did.”

“Okay. All right. Well, she’s already on her way. I’ll text her.”

Knowing more bodies were likely to pile up because she’d let Sven go wasn’t the same as accepting it. “Sounds good.”

“Hey,” he said as if she had been ready to hang up. “I got a question for you. And I need a damned good answer.”

That didn’t sound good. “What?”

“What am I getting out of helping you with this?”

She kinda thought they’d already worked that out. “I’ll look into you sister’s case.”

“When?”

“When things clear up. I’m in the middle of a murder investigation here, Danny.”

“No. I know that. I mean, are you going to tell me just enough information to get me to shut up?”

The thought was tempting, but, no. She respected him. There were few reporters she could say she respected. “No. No. I…” She took in a deep breath. Whatever she said, it had to be the truth and she had to follow up on it. “When I settle this case, I will look into her case.”

“And tell me what you know?”

She’d probably get into ten kinds of trouble for it, but— “Yes.”

“All of it?”

“As much as I have.”

He paused. “Okay. I’m going to hold you to that.”

“No problem.”

“All right.”

“Yeah. Stay safe and stay off his radar.”

“How…exactly do I do that?”

“Easy.” Paige pulled the phone away from her ear, preparing to hang up. “Stay as far away from him as you can.” She hit the red button.

“Who was that?” Dexx asked, staring at the map wall, his hands clasped between his knees.

“Danny Miller. He’s a reporter. Apparently, his sister was killed by a shifter bite.”

Dexx pulled back, surprise exploding over his face.

“So, he took it upon himself to investigate the shifters to see if they’re evil.”

“The way I did when a demon possessed and murdered my brother.”

“Exactly.”

Dexx let his head fall back and expelled a puff of breath.

Paige’s phone sang out, “I’m a gummy bear,” loudly. “I’m going to have to change that ring tone.”

“It was cute when she didn’t call that often.”

Paige swiped to answer and put the phone to her ear. “I know. Hey, Les. Did you find anything?”

“I did. First of all, I couldn’t find any of Great Grandma’s journals. Nothing. It’s as if she didn’t keep one.”

“Odd.”

“Not really. I’m not good at keeping one, either.”

Paige neither. “Okay. Maybe we should do that.”

“Ya think? Okay. Anyway. Went to the book store and guess what I found?”

“Uh, books?”

“On demons. Yeah.” Leslie’s drawl was barely discernable in her excitement. “So, that four-tiered candelabra? From everything I can find, that’s the demon Oriel. He’s known as Hell’s scribe. He’s been around since the Fall, was a scribe in Heaven, and now no one can solve any of the old writings, including the prophecies, without him.”

“Then, why is he out here killing people?”

“That part’s on you.” Paige heard a page whip. “You should see this, Pea. There’s tons of demons out there, and these are just the ones we know about.”

“What references is this book using?” She had a hard time trusting something Leslie found in a book store. A book store. For crying out loud. Seriously?

“Oh, I don’t know.
The Bible
? There’s also a few older books.
The Devine
something or other. I’m not saying we can believe all the information here, but some of it might be legit. You never know.”

Paige nodded and released a long breath. “Okay. Hell’s scribe murdered a shifter that Sven had kidnapped.”

“Yeah. Have fun with that one. On the other thing you asked me to do for you…”

The texts Leslie had discovered about the paranormals that she couldn’t read. “Were you able to get some of them translated?”

“Yes.”

Awesome. “What story did you have to tell?”

“Nothing. She’s in our coven.”

“We have a coven?”

“You don’t. We do.”

Ouch.

“But that could change. If you came back home.”

Paige hated it when Leslie used that tone.

“Anyway, she’s a professor at a local college and she knows a lot of languages.”

“Coincidence?”

“You should get out and talk to people, Pea. As in,
talk
to them. Discuss somethin’ other’n dead bodies every once in a while?”

“What would I have to talk about?”

“Ugh. Anyway. This is written in a couple different languages. Most of ‘em are real old.” Leslie’s drawl was getting thicker.

Paige couldn’t pin down why people with accents had such strange syntax. Depending on the mood, it could get thicker and harder to understand, or completely go away and sound normal. “So, a good book.”

“Yeah.” Leslie’s voice lost some of its emotion zeal as if she was concentrating. “Yeah, okay. Right here. Okay. Right? So, apparently, a long time ago before we even came to America, the paranormals and the witches were enemies.”

“Do we know why?”

“Haven’t been able to figure that one out.”

“Probably a lover’s quarrel or something.”

“You’re thinkin’ Shakespeare.”

“There’s a reason he’s famous.”

“Right? Don’t care. Anyway, those shifters would devour witches.”

The short hairs on the back of Paige’s neck rose. “What?”

“Yeah. Somethin’ about how a witch’s soul gave shifters a certain power?”

Paige thought about everything she’d learned so far about the shifter community. “They work with elementals.”

“What?”

“They—I don’t know how to describe it. Today, I met what I would call a deep sea water bear.”

“There’s no such thing.”

“In the animal kingdom? No. But here? The water spoke to me unlike anything I ever felt.”

“I don’t speak to water.”

“I know. It’s like—okay. So, when I speak to rain, it’s soft and light and I feel giggly and free. When I speak to a brook or a creek, I feel like I’m in a hurry and need to be someplace. When I’m talking to a river, I feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be, that I’m providing cleansing nutrients as I travel. But this water element? It was strong and ancient and brought up visions of deep water, like in a sea. I didn’t feel movement. I felt…wisdom.”

“I never understood how you talk to elements,” Leslie muttered. “When I talk to air, it’s just, ‘Hey, I need this thing,’ and then the thing happens. Or it don’t.”

“Doesn’t.”

“Shut it.”

“Anyway,” Paige said firmly before things could digress again. “What else?”

“Well, apparently, the witches formed an alliance of some sort. There were factions of witches. Did you know that?”

Paige shrugged deeply, drawing the corners of lips down. She’d never heard of that before.

“Yeah. That’s what I said. Anyway, they formed an alliance then started fightin’ back against the shifters and, get this, vampires! Can you believe it? Blood suckers. For real.”

“They are for real.”

“You are—” Leslie stuttered. “Paige Luanne Whiskey! You’re tellin’ me you know about vampires?” Her voice went up at least one octave.

“I have one as a partner.”

“Tony?” Leslie’s voice continued to rise. “I’ve met him.”

“And he didn’t suck your blood, but—” Paige scratched her chin and stared at the wall of maps. Where should she start? “He’s still a vampire.”

“Blessed Mother, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

For what?
Meeting
a vampire? “I just found out.”

“When?”

“It’s been a very enlightening three days.”

“Baby sister,” Leslie said calmly, “I’m gonna kill you before you give me a heart attack. Okay. What else am I looking for?”

“You didn’t finish telling me the story.”

“Oh, right. Well, they fought. They came to a draw. And now we live in separate communities, neither communicatin’ with the other.”

“Hmm.”

“But there’s this treaty, or whatever, that was drawn up when they stopped fightin’. Sounds pretty important.”

“A treaty? Do you know anything more about it?”

“Only that after it was signed, they weren’t allowed to speak to one another.”

Paige narrowed her eyes at the map wall. A treaty where witches and paranormals weren’t allowed to speak to one another? Was that the reason Sven brought her there? Because he wanted to start another witch versus paranormal war?