whiskey witches 01 - whisky witches by s m blooding Read Free Book Online Page A

his gaze to the floor. “One possessed my brother. He went insane, got locked up and drugged. I didn’t believe him when he said he was possessed, of course. No one did, but after he killed himself, I started digging.”
    “And you wound up here. Huh.”
    “Yeah. Huh.”
    They sat in companionable silence for a long moment.
    “What about you?” Dexx asked. “How’d you end up as a civil servant?”
    Brian smiled, his eyebrows raised. “I followed my dad, my two brothers, my cousin, and my sister.”
    “So there’s a whole family of you protecting the streets. Must run in the blood.”
    “Yeah.”
    Dexx ran his hands across his scalp and stood. “Well, I’m bushed and calling it a night.”
    “I thought you said she was in danger, that we all were.”
    “She is and you are. However, I can’t save anyone if I’m too tired to think straight. Trust me. He’s out there somewhere, watching, waiting.”
    “And what’s he going to do with her?”
    Dexx turned to the bed. “Use her. But I’m hoping Alma comes up with a plan that’ll ensure he can’t.”
    “Hope?” Brian rose from his chair, grabbing his jacket off the chair. “I’ll have someone guard her door.”
    “And alert our position? Or that we know?”
    “So you’re setting up a trap and she’s the bait?”
    Dexx smiled at him, a frown furrowing his brow. “You know, for a cop, I like the way you think.”
    Brian shook his head and walked to the door. “I’ll stay in the next room then, keep watch while you sleep.”
    Bullets against demons. Oh, what a cute mundane. “Okay. Sure. Sounds great. Wake me in four.”
    He nodded dully. He paused at the door, his eyes glued to the Sharpie sigils on the door jam. “These really going to help?”
    “They really can’t hurt.”
    “Right.” He closed the door behind him.
    Dexx pushed the papers around on the table without really seeing them. He reviewed his sleeping options. There was the window bench, which seemed like a good idea if he was a kid, but he wasn’t and his old bones had been broken way too many times to appreciate sleeping in that position.
    There was the floor, but again, his bones. He could sleep in the chair.
    Oh, no. No. His body ached from just sitting in it.
    He could—
    Paige jerked upright in bed, her brown eyes open. She turned to him. “The key is calling.”

F IRST THING FIRST . Demon or Paige?
    He grabbed the holy water, then thought better of it. He might need it later. He looked down at the rune. Black.
    It was Paige.
    A different Paige. The old Paige. The one that he’d met years ago. Tough. Callused. Rough-ridden. Weathered.
    She blinked and her shoulders slumped. “How long have I been asleep?”
    He stared at her, his eyes narrowed. “A day.” He looked around at the dim room. “Maybe one and a half. How are you feeling? I gave you enough sedatives to take down an elephant.”
    “Good thing I’m not an elephant.”
    He expelled a short breath, the corner of his lips rising in a grimace. If she was joking around that had to be good. “You said the key was calling.”
    “I did.” Her battered gaze flitting around the room.
    “Is the demon still trying to get in?”
    “No.” She rubbed her arms. “I stopped him.”
    She stopped him. Well, was that good or bad or really, really bad? He bit off that thought with a flattening of his lips. Wasn’t he the one who had been hoping to see Paige the demon summoner back just a few hours ago? Yeah. This had to be good then.
    She stood up and wrapped her arms around her abdomen like she was cold. “It’s all true. I keep trying to make it go away again, but I can’t.”
    He wanted to yell at her to stop running, but that wasn’t what she needed. She looked broken. She needed built back up. “Yeah. Um, I’m real sorry about that.”
    “About which part? The part where I lost my daughter and am living in Hell, or the part where I actually remember it?”
    “Well, when you put it that way . . .”
    The