Whiskey Witches by F.J. Blooding (mobile ebook reader txt) 📕

“He was on my team!”

Paige advanced on him. “He’s an angel probably hiding behind demons and we don’t have a good enough offense!”

“What if,” Roxxie said, her voice small, “I shielded you?”

Paige and Brian faced the angel.

“An angel?” Balnore asked quietly. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, you could scar her.”

“She’s already scarred.” Roxxie bit the inside of her lip.

“Are you serious?” Paige glanced at Brian. “If you are, we have a chance. A chance. If you’re not, though, we’re all dead and that gate opens whatever Mike has planned comes to pass.”

“Right. I know. No. I’m serious. I can do this. I can help you.”

Balnore grimaced at Paige. “It’s imperative we get that key.”

“And what do we do with an angel?”

“If you can handle the demons,” Balnore said, nodding in thought, “I can get Mike.”

Paige thought about it for a second. “Okay. Okay. Let’s go.”

The junkyard was located out in the middle of nowhere. The flat, barren land was broken only by piles of old, junked cars and a single trailer sitting perched on the edge. Lit by street lamps.

Several police cars with several different markings were parked along either side of the highway.

Not a single person was anywhere.

Paige parked Jackie behind Brian’s car. “Roxxie, tell me why you’re helping.”

“Fun factor?”

Paige scanned the area. Where was everyone? She didn’t appreciate being blind. She got out , closing Jackie’s door quietly. “Don’t reach into me and start using my gift. Okay? I know how to do it just fine without you.”

Roxxie nodded over the hood. She glowed softly in the pitch black of night.

Paige walked up to Brian. “Did you call this in?”

“And risk endangering them to fight demons?” He pulled his gun out and checked the safety. Shaking his head, he pointed his gun to the ground. “Another ploy?”

Roxxie lifted one shoulder, glancing at Balnore. “Humans are fodder to angels.”

Balnore raised a dark eyebrow.

Paige steadied her screaming nerves. “Roxxie?”

Roxxie closed her eyes, biting her lips. She spread her hands in benediction and floated off the ground by about two inches.

Brian blinked, but otherwise didn’t react as he kept his eyes on the junkyard.

Paige’s nerves settled as though someone had taken a silk brush to them. She took in a deep breath and released it.

“Better?” Balnore asked.

She nodded. “It’s working. Brian, stay here until I clear the scene. You go in there before I clear it, you’re as good as fodder like everyone else.”

Brian’s jaw clenched.

“Good. Bal, you ready?”

The demon shrugged with his eyebrows. “After you.”

Paige approached the chain-link fence. The gate stood open. The sun crept up to the horizon, shooting small knives of light into the inky blackness.

Great. Dawn. She wasn’t sure how time had passed so quickly, but it couldn’t have come at a worse time. She needed to be able to see.

A thick bank of fog rolled in as they made it past the first pile of cars. It swung out of the way, like a flimsy curtain moving in the breeze.

Demons. Five of them. They laughed, slapping each other in praise.

Three cops writhed on the ground at their feet. She could barely make out the sounds of their cries as the fog parted, could barely discern the howls of laughter from the demons.

“You sure you can do this?” Paige muttered.

Roxxie squared her small shoulders. “Only one way to find out. Go get them.”

Paige called up the power of Hell. She formed it into ethereal clawed hands. She grabbed each of the demons’ souls, maintaining her hiding spot behind the junk cars.

Fear covered their nearly human faces as they turned to face her. They fought bought back, throwing his soul energy at her arms.

Curling her lip, Paige tugged on the flow of power from Hell. Her heart asked questions her mind couldn’t translate. Curiosity. Question. In her mind, she asked one question. Do you want them back?

A portal opened beneath her feet, one her gifted eyes could see. A thinning of the veil between her world and Hell as it answered back. Yes.

She flung the through the portal.

Hell reclaimed them with unabashed glee.

Roxxie cried out.

Power flowed through Paige. Hell beckoned like a lover. “What’s wrong?”

“It—it’s not—” The angel waved Paige on. “I’m fine. I can do this.”

Paige’s nerves went raw, as if she were standing in the middle of a fire. Then they calmed just as suddenly. “Are you sure?”

“No.” The angel’s voice was small.

Paige had to hurry, and she had to figure out to do this without Roxxie if the angel failed. She breathed. This was her gift. It was a part of her. She could do this. She had to. Sounds grew distant as she concentrated her will, turning off all other distractions.

She had to.