A Barrel of Whiskey - (An Urban Fantasy Whiskey Witches Novel) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters, organizations, and events within this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to business establishments, actual persons, or events is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Whistling Book Press

  Denver, CO

  Copyright © 2016 Whistling Books, LLC

  All rights reserved.

  Per the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any form without written permission from the publisher. Please only purchase authorized editions.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Published by Whistling Book Press

  Whistling Book Press

  Denver, CO

  Visit our web site at:

  www.whistlingbookpress.com

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Other works by SM Blooding

  Dedication

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  23

  24

  25

  26

  27

  28

  29

  30

  31

  32

  33

  34

  About the Author

  Other works by SM Blooding:

  Devices of War Trilogy

  Fall of Sky City

  Knight of Wands

  Whispers of the Skyborne

  Whiskey Witches (Paranormal Thriller)

  Whiskey Witches

  Blood Moon Magick

  A Barrel of Whiskey

  The Dream Killers (Fairytale Adventure)

  Season 1

  Episode 1: Graveyard of Dreams

  Episode 2: Eyes of Stars

  Episode 3: Captain Tightpants

  Dreamland Stories (Fairytale Romance)

  The Dustman (free on Smashwords)

  To Kenna and Kallie:

  The words are here

  if you just listen.

  I will always love you

  The car shifted hard to the left.

  Paige jerked awake, her hands out. She grasped the dashboard of the 1970 Dodge Challenger. Empty blacktop road. No potholes.

  The car careened toward the ditch again.

  Dexx growled low. His normally sharp features flickered in and out of focus. His nails elongated as he gripped the steering wheel.

  He was starting to shift. Fuck!

  “Don’t hurt Jackie,” Paige shouted. Jackie was the car, the one thing in this world Dexx loved more than anything.

  “Trying not to,” he ground out. His teeth grew, two long fangs protruding from his upper lip.

  “I thought you said you had this under control.” He was a newly turned shapeshifter and his inner animal was a saber-toothed tiger. Sorry. Saber-toothed cat.

  “I did.”

  Biggest damned cat in the known animal kingdom. At least, as far she knew. “Pull over!”

  “I’m trying!”

  Dexx stopped Jackie on the narrow gravel shoulder. He opened the door and fell out. A long, low growl issued from him.

  Dirt settled around the car, but he hadn’t gotten enough off the highway to be safe. Long, two-lane highway like this, people stopped paying attention. Easy drive. Easy to do other things. Easy to nod off. She slid over and pulled Jackie almost into the ditch, then cut off her rumbling engine.

  At least they weren’t dead.

  By the time she got out of the car, he was gone, his long tail disappearing over a hill. His clothes were everywhere.

  Shit. Where were they?

  The highway stretched into the far forever. Trees, brown grass, and rolling hills. Well, that and barbed wire fences.

  Could still be Colorado. Could be Oklahoma or Texas.

  She stretched her kinked back.

  Dexx needed more time in Nederland with the other shifters to help him with his shift.

  Unfortunately, they hadn’t had the time.

  The Eastwood witches were on their way to Texas. Her home. Where her family lived, not knowing that war was about to knock on their front door.

  Paige didn’t know if the Eastwoods were driving. Did they have to fly commercial? Did they have their own jet? How many of them were coming? How big was their coven? What would this war look like? A couple of women bitching at one another, threatening to set each other’s hair on fire?

  If that was the case, they wouldn’t have required a treaty to end the original war.

  Probably bad magick and blood. Crap.

  Dexx needed to get his naked human ass back to the car so they could go. How much time did they even have?

  She sighed and picked up his clothes off the highway.

  An eighteen-wheeler approached from behind. He was maybe a mile back, his grill warbling with the building heat.

  She grabbed Dexx’s boot out of the middle of the road, set it beside the ditch, and perched on Jackie’s hood, trying to settle her nerves.

  Tumble weeds. When was the last time she’d seen a tumble weed?

  The last time she’d lived in Texas.

  The thought of coming back made her stomach twist in knots. A lot had happened since she’d been here last.

  She’d lost her daughter in a custody battle with her mother—an unfair fight since the woman had used angels to help her side.

  She’d had her memories and gifts banished for five years.

  She’d been captured by a demon and had a door to Hell installed in her soul.

  The man she loved was a shifter.

  She was a witch with an animal spirit inside her helping to keep the demon door closed.

  And there was a treaty between the shifters and witches. A treaty that had ended a pretty brutal war a couple hundred years ago.

  A treaty Dexx and Paige had broken by being together.

  And, now, she had to tell her grandmother, the Whiskey crone and overall matriarch of the family, that the other witch families were on their way to start a war.

  A flock of birds flew in. An owl, an eagle, a hawk of some sort, a smaller bird like a sparrow or something, and a dove.

  Paige stood as the eighteen-wheeler blew by, the wind of its passing swiping her hard.

  He blew his horn.

  She lifted her arm and waved to let the trucker know she was okay.

  Her attention, however, was trained on the odd assortment of birds flying in. Was it coincidence that Dexx had lost control of his shift and then a bunch of shifters showed up?

  It had to be shifters. No way a group of birds of that variety would fly together in the natural world.

  A group of about five wolves of varying shades, three horses, and two mountain lions crested the hill to the south.

  Paige swallowed hard. What had she just said about flying under the radar? This wasn’t that.

  Do not do anything hasty, Cawli, her animal spirit, said softly in her mind, his voice gentle, adding a calming balm to her unsettled nerves.

  Good advice. Impending war with other witch families. Didn’t need anothe
r one with the local pack.

  Paige crossed the ditch to greet the pack of mixed animals.

  Two of the wolves, one black and one mottled, leapt over the sagging barbed wire fence. Two of the others crawled underneath it, their grey bellies digging into the dirt. The fifth stayed on the other side with the horses.

  The mountain lions, however, loped toward the hill Dexx had disappeared behind.

  Paige wasn’t worried about Dexx. He was easily twice their size. While he didn’t have a great deal of experience with his animal, he had a lot of instinct. He’d be able to take care of himself.

  The dove and the sparrow settled on the fence.

  The black wolf rose on his hind quarters, his fur slipping into his morphing body. His legs unbuckled and grew longer, his back straightening into a more natural, human curve. His black hair hung past his shoulders in easy waves. His blue eyes were startling against his tanned skin. He looked Mediterranean.

  And he was naked. Blessedly, buck-assed naked. And the ass end wasn’t facing her.

  She threw him Dexx’s shirt. “Public highway.”

  He caught it with ease and held it loosely in front of his manly parts that might distract drivers and cause accidents. “Normally, we don’t greet strangers this way,” he said with an accent she couldn’t place.

  She certainly hoped not. “But you’re making an exception for us. How lovely. Why?”

  A growling yowl rolled over the hill Dexx had disappeared behind.

  Wolf-man tipped his head to the side. “You are not a shifter.”

  “Nope.”

  He narrowed his eyes.

  He can sense me, Cawli murmured. You should tell him.

  Why? She didn’t know anything about this man except that he seemed quite confident in his naked self. Granted, he had every reason to be confident. She hadn’t stared, had only caught a glimpse, but the man was well-endowed. And the rest of him was a sight to see as well.

  He is this region’s high alpha. You would do well to introduce yourself.

  She kept her eye roll internal and sighed. “I’m Detective Paige Whiskey.”

  “Whiskey.” He straightened and narrowed his eyes.

  In for a penny. “A couple days ago, a shape shifter was murdered. I was given the case. It led me to Nederland.”

  His hands balled into fists.

  High alpha, huh? Match for a witch? Was she a match for him? She really didn’t want to find out. “Demon. We didn’t catch him, but we did get the murders stopped.”

  “And Nederland?” Coldness entered his piercing blue eyes.

  “Safe.” A shiver coursed down her spine as she recalled the details. It had been close, keeping the shapeshifter town safe from the demons. “We made sure they were safe. We were just there yesterday. The town’s good. There are new protections. Demons won’t ever be a problem ever again.”

  A frown flickered between his brows. “So, the stories are true, then.”

  Was there a newsletter or something? If the Eastwoods had found out what Paige had done, she knew how. Sven. Wanted to make trouble for her. But this guy? If he knew, she might be in trouble because she didn’t know if the Eastwoods really knew. She assumed they did, but hoped they didn’t. “What stories?”

  “A witch was chosen by the animal spirits.”

  Hopefully, he was as accepting as the shifters of Nederland had been, but he didn’t need her help like they had. “Yes. The stories are true.”

  Wolf-man raised his chin and sniffed the air.

  Paige ran her tongue along her teeth. Animals. They could tell a lot by smell. They could smell emotion. How weird was that?

  She might not be able to shift, but her sense of smell was getting better. Not as good as to be able to smell his emotions at that moment, which would have been helpful. She could, however, tell that he’d recently showered. He still smelled of soap. And he was hot in the sun as it beat down on them.

  He lowered his head, his narrowed eyes trained on her. “What is your business?”

  “Am I in your territory?”

  “You are.”

  “Oh, well.” Awesome. “I’m going home. My sister had a baby. Going to see him.” Wasn’t a lie, either, thankfully.

  He shifted his weight from one foot to the next.

  The mottled wolf beside him growled low in his throat.

  Wolf-man shook his head.

  “Look, I’m just trying to get home for a visit.”

  “Back to your coven.”

  Paige snorted a chuckle of surprise. Coven. Everything about being a witch was still so new to her. Even before her memories had been wiped, she hadn’t been a part of any coven.

  However, apparently, Leslie and Alma were. Her sister was the medium and her grandmother was the local hedge witch. It shouldn’t surprise Paige that they’d gathered a coven, but it did. When she’d lived in the house, magick had just been an everyday thing. A little spell here. A small hex there. But nothing that would require a coven.

  Also, as the demon summoner, no one wanted her magick to meddle with theirs. She tainted magick.

  Wolf-man narrowed his eyes.

  “No. I am not a part of any coven.”

  Confusion pinched his dark, full brows together. “Is there something wrong with you?”

  Be honest. Cawli huffed in the back of Paige’s mind.

  She wasn’t used to broadcasting to people she’d just met what she was. “I’m a demon summoner. I don’t get asked to participate a lot.”

  He nodded slowly. “And yet the animal spirit chose you.”

  She shrugged. “And yet.”

  She’d lost a lot due to her demon gift and people’s opinions about it. She’d lost her job in Texas, her daughter, her family. She’d never been offered the communion of coven. Yeah. Being the demon summoner was a lot like being a leper.

  His gaze shifted to the landscape beside them.

  Dexx crested the hill accompanied by the two mountain lions, the eagle, and the hawk.

  Where was the owl?

  And he was buck-assed naked, too. But she’d seen that lovely piece of ass.

  Dexx leapt over the fence with an ease that looked like Hollywood wirework. He grabbed his pants, the mid-sky sunlight shining on his short, brown hair. His green eyes were narrowed and surly.

  She smiled tightly. “Local pack.”

  “Got that,” he gritted between his teeth.

  “You okay?”

  He shrugged one bare, freckled shoulder and zipped up his pants.

  A white minivan drove past, swerving a little.

  She needed to get the hot naked men off the highway.

  “Okay.” Paige returned her attention to the alpha. She just needed to ensure she didn’t have a two-front war. “What do you want?”

  Wolf-man met her gaze squarely. It had a weight to it. “You tripped our protections.”

  She hadn’t felt any, but that did explain why Dexx had been unable to control his shift. “Okay. Great. Now, what?”

  He studied Dexx. “The animal spirits have great faith in you.”

  “I wouldn’t call it that,” Dexx said low in his throat. “Is that my shirt?”

  “I didn’t want his penis talking to drivers,” Paige said. “Okay? You’ll get it back.”

  “Where are the keys?”

  “In the ignition, where you left them.”

  He leaned through the wide open window of the Challenger, took the keys, and padded barefoot in the brown grass and weeds to open the trunk.

  “Are we clear to go?” Paige returned her attention to Wolf-man. “Or are you here to lay down the rules? Arrest us? Pee on us? I don’t know. What are we doing here?”

  “Someone with as much power as he has cannot simply walk unhindered into another pack’s territory.”

  “So.” He was more interested in Dexx than her. Interesting. And good. “Pissing. I’m guessing there’ll be a lot of pissing.”

  Paige. Cawli’s voice was dark.

&n
bsp; Screw him if he couldn’t take her sarcasm.

  A big, blue pick-up truck blew by.

  Dexx came back, pulling on a green t-shirt. “I don’t want your territory.”

  “But you are planning on staying with this one? She said she is coming home.”

  Dexx clucked his tongue. “For a visit. A couple of days.”

  Or as long as the war lasted. “What does he have to do to stay?”

  “You said a couple of days?” Wolf-man asked softly, his eyes shifting ever so slightly. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he almost looked disappointed.

  “Might be a week.” Or until the bodies stopped dropping.

  Wolf-man bit the inside of his cheek, studying her with unfocused eyes. “You will both present yourself to the pack. After that, we will decide.”

  Paige released a long breath. “I have to ask. Do you have any connection to Portland?”

  Wolf-man drew his head up, his eyes almost glowing with interest. “Yes.”

  She took in a tight breath. “The Eastwoods are coming to Texas. So, I don’t know what you gotta do, but be careful.”

  The tightness around Wolf-man’s eyes lessened. “Thank you, but we are already aware. They are here for other reasons. Be calm. They do not know you have broken the treaty.”

  Saliva swarmed her mouth. Wow. Great. Shit. Relief swept through her. They were safe?

  “We will keep this information within the safety of trusted circles.”

  Even trusted circles had leaks, and she was fairly confident she had a demon intent on re-starting the war.

  “His message was intercepted.”

  “Did you read my fucking mind?”

  “Your expression.”

  Even if he was just good at reading her face, his response to her unintended non-verbal was damned eerie. “Fine. Where do we meet? How do we get a hold of you?”

  He glanced down at the mottled wolf beside him. “Can we approach your house?”

  Probably a bad idea since she hadn’t told Alma, but what choice did she have? She’d broken the treaty. She couldn’t treat the shifters like they were the ones doing wrong. She’d tell Alma and make it right. “You may.”

  “We will send an invitation via messenger, then.”