It took Dexx a lot longer than Paige wanted to wait, though she couldn’t disagree with them. She’d been to one crime scene and one unattached investigation. She’d been hit with a trap spell both times. Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, she’d been abducted from her own room, tormented, and had a demon forced into her.
Yeah. She could use the support and the backup. Brian might not know how to handle himself in a fight with a demon, but Dexx did.
It did give her time to scope the place out. No movement. None. No graffiti. No signs of disturbance from the outside.
She called up her globe and searched again, hoping for a glitch. After all, she’d been possessed by a demon. Maybe that had jacked things up. She pulled the perimeter back. No one. It was like, either all the magickal people on the continental U.S. were hiding under the same shield, or every single one of them had disappeared. She couldn’t figure out which scared the crap out of her the most. She couldn’t even find her grandmother, mother, or sister. She was always able to find them.
Dexx must have thought he traveled a bit cross country. It really wasn’t that bad, just dirt roads that could barely be considered roads anymore. Paige heard Jackie’s rumble and a car door slam. She gritted her teeth as she played all the possible conversations that were about to ensue. They all started with, “What were you thinking?” and ended with, “Shut the fuck up.”
Brian walked back to meet Dexx half-way. The sun slid behind the trees, casting long shadows over the gravestones.
Paige didn’t want to be left by herself, even though she had full control over her gifts. She had great and powerful abilities, but it had been years since she’d used them. Like a marathon runner taking a break for three years.
Dexx had his duffle bag slung over his shoulder, his sawed-off in his right hand. His expression was tight, fixed. “I see you found their lair.”
“Maybe,” Paige said, matching her gait to his as she turned and headed back toward the church. “Seems empty now.”
“Then why are we here?”
“To see what they left behind.”
“What are we hoping to find?”
She frowned at him. The shadows hid his expression at that angle.
He stretched his neck. “I just want to know if this is even worth the trip.”
“We’re here.”
“And there could be a trap in there.” He stopped and hitched the bag on his shoulder. “What brought you here?”
“The scry globe.”
Brian folded his arms over his chest.
“And what did you see?” Dexx asked.
“About a dozen demons in this location.”
“You’re sure.”
“My globe has never lied before.”
“Okay. Fine. I’m assuming you’ve scried since you got here. Where are they?”
Paige faced the church and let out a long breath. “I don’t know. Nowhere.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she said, twisting toward Dexx, “I can’t see them. They’re either hiding or they’re all gone. All of them. Every single one of them, including Grandma and Les, and every other magickal person out there.”
Pale light from above, probably the moon, glinted in his eyes. They concentrated on her chest.
Paige touched the bandage. It seemed like days ago, but her abduction had been just mere hours. Well, a bit longer than that, but still. Her wounds hadn’t healed and she didn’t think much of them. “What is it?”
He shook his head and stomped toward the church.
Brian moved to follow. “I feel as though I missed something.”
Dexx wasn’t forthcoming with answers.
Paige was just as confused as Brian.
Reaching around his back, Dexx pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on with a loud click. The interior of the church was one large room. The bell tower reigned in the far back, rafters partially fallen, dangling dangerously. He scanned the roof.
“Looks a bit unstable,” Brian commented.
Paige pulled out her phone and brought up the flashlight app. After a second or two, the light came on, bathing the area in a bright light. “I’m looking for anything other than dirt and leaves.”
“Like?” Dexx asked, meandering toward the back.
“Like a clue as to where they are and what their next move is. The idea is to stop them, Dexx. Before they kill someone else.”
Brian pulled out his phone, staring at it. “How’d you get the light thingy to work?”
“App.”
“Oh.” He flailed with his phone, then shoved it in his pocket.
Dexx dug another flashlight out of his bag. “Here.”
Paige decided to ignore his tone and the set of his lips. She already knew he was unhappy with her. She had a job to do and she wasn’t going to stop because someone targeted her.
There was the fact, though, that Sven had no idea they’d been able to expel Lucius from her body. Or that he was still in the area.
If she had to, she might play that card. But when? How?
“Don’t touch anything.”
She glared at Dexx. Like she needed the reminder.
Brian headed toward one wall. “How’s the shoulder?”
Paige ran the question through her mind, trying to recall what he was talking about, then remembered in a flash. Dexx. He’d been shot before she’d been kidnapped. How had she forgotten? Like the wounds carved into her flesh, his was still new, raw.
“Fine,” Dexx said, shining his flashlight into the bell tower. Finding nothing, he moved to the walls.
The walls were bare. The dirt floor had no markings on it. A few footprints, but nothing to show over a dozen demons had been there. Maybe they hadn’t been in the church.
“I’m not seeing anything.” Dexx spun, his flashlight pointed at the dirt floor.
“Me either.” Brian flopped one hand against his leg.
“This is so frustrating.” Paige took in the scene one last time. “I know they were here.”
“And you searched the area around the church?” Dexx asked.
“Yes.” The only signs of…the broken branches, the smashed grass. Maybe she’d gone in the wrong direction. “I’ve got an idea.”
Dexx and Brian followed her out of the church and into the woods. It took her a moment to find the path again. It had been difficult to see the first time. She wasn’t a tracker, had never been taught. There it was again. A broken branch and blades of grass smashed outward.
“I see it.” Dexx took the lead. “Someone taught me to track. I can read the trail better.”
She shrugged. “Fine.”
Even with her “super bright LED flashlight app” the going was crazy. The vegetation was thick. The night impossibly dark.
Or was she finally getting scared of the dark? After all these years, raised the way she had been. It seemed hard to believe, but there it was. The dark terrified her.
Dexx passed a point that might have been where she’d intersected the path. Maybe. Everything looked so different at this point. He kept going, tramping as quietly as he could.
Brian wasn’t as light on his feet.
Dexx stopped suddenly, holding his arm out to stop Paige.
“What?” She stepped around him then froze.
Brian followed suit, but went to the other side of Dexx.
Blood. Everywhere. And fresh.
“I don’t see a body,” Paige murmured.
“Me either.” Brian’s voice lowered as if he were forcing his words around something lodged in his throat.
“How many people were in that coven?” Dexx asked.
“I didn’t ask.” Paige kicked herself. Why hadn’t she thought to ask that? She’d been trying to get Malika to flub up and admit to being the killer, or at least knowing him. She knelt and reached for a blade of grass.
“Don’t!” Dexx slapped her hand away, his duffel bag falling as he stooped. He straightened, rearranging the bag over his shoulder. “Don’t touch anything.”
Brian ran his free hand over his head. “I thought you said they were killing people to get Lucius to possess them.”
“I thought they were. It made sense. Everything fit the puzzle.”
“Then why are they still killing?” he demanded rounding on her. “That’s fresh blood. I don’t have to touch it to know. I can smell it.”
Also, there was the fact it hadn’t dried and turned brown. Even in the not great light, she could tell it gleamed. “Maybe it’s not human.”
“And maybe we have another body that’ll turn up at the shack tonight.”
Paige dug her elbow into her knee and stared at the bloodied grass in deep thought. Why had they taken her to the cellar? She didn’t even know which cellar, only that it was one. And yet, all the other sacrifices had been conducted here. Granted, it was a leap in logic. The evidence hadn’t been gathered, but there was a lot of blood here. Some old. Some new. It didn’t take a forensics team to see that. More than one body could carry. It splattered on the branches, the leaves, the vegetation—everything in a wide circle of maybe six feet in diameter.
What was going on here? She scanned the area for clues, afraid to touch anything. Her Spidey senses told her nothing. Her gift didn’t register anything.
She was blind. Her scry globe didn’t work.
She was being played. Again.