whiskey witches 02 - blood moon magick by s m blooding Page A

that’s not all.”
    She rubbed her eyebrow. She’d already gone way past the point of no return with Barn. There was no sense feeling bad now, but she did. “What?”
    “Retractable claws.”
    The door opened then shut behind Paige. A heavy, primal presence entered the room, causing a tingling along the nape of her neck.
    Tony.
    He settled beside her, staring hard at the body.
    Barn went still, grasping the victim’s fingers.
    How was she supposed to handle this? She took in a deep breath. “You said they retract? I don’t see them extended.”
    Barn pulled a pen out of the pocket at his hip, the rest of his body frozen, and pressed it to the victim’s fingertip. A thick, pale claw extended. He relieved the pressure and the claw retracted.
    Tony’s expression was stone cold.
    Paige clucked her tongue. “What else, Barn?”
    His breath came quickly as he watched Tony. He brought his hands up, took them back.
    “Barn,” Paige said, drawing his attention to her. “It’s okay. What did you find?”
    Swallowing, he placed his hands on the victim’s head, pushing away the woman’s dark brown hair. “Ears.”
    No normal, human ears. In their place, cat ears. Paige didn’t know her cats very well. They could have been a dog’s, a wolf’s. Maybe. But they reminded her of a cat. Werecats?
    Paige needed a stiff drink after this. “Anything else?”
    Barn’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He kept his gaze locked on Paige’s face. “Just this.” He pulled the sheet back enough to reveal the woman’s chest.
    A symbol.
    A chill ran down Paige’s spine. “I didn’t see that at the crime scene.” The location of the symbol was on her breastplate. With the cut of the dress, Paige would have seen it at the crime scene.
    “That’s because she didn’t arrive here with it.”
    Paige narrowed her eyes on the man.
    “Someone came in here and did this when I stepped out.”
    Cold washed over her. The edges of the wounds didn’t look like a knife. The edges were raw and singed. Someone had branded her with magick, this was the result of that magick tearing from her decaying corpse. Blessed Mother. She’d seen this only on one other case.
    A case she’d been pulled off of. She blinked as she recalled it. It had been a woman. Similar mark as this on her chest. The case had been removed from her jurisdiction, though. She hadn’t understood why, but she’d been too busy with other cases to be overly concerned.
    The symbol, though? A sideways number three with a dot behind it. It looked like it should have been a rune, but it wasn’t a rune she knew. And she’d never been able to track down what it meant, mainly because she’d gotten so distracted on other cases.
    She jerked her mind back to this case. “When did you step out?”
    “Around midnight. I had to pee.”
    “How long were you gone?” If she could figure out what that symbol meant, she could figure out why the prior case had been taken from her.
    “A few minutes.”
    Tony didn’t move. “What does it mean?” His growl bordered on something not quite human.
    Barn shook his head.
    Paige bit down on her lips, thinking really, really hard about what she was about to ask. In front of Barn. “Would any of your special contacts know what this means?”
    Tony tipped his head, anger pouring from his gaze like hot lava. “Could it be something like what you have on your chest?”
    Paige didn’t want to answer, but she owed him something since it appeared his world was being invaded by hers. And Barn was standing right on the edge. He could teeter either way. If he went in search of the paranormal on his own, he could be seriously hurt. Or worse.
    She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse to uncover her scabbed skin.
    Barn eyes widened as he stared at her chest, but he didn’t move for a closer view.
    Tony glanced at it out of the corner of his eye. “That’s what opened you for possession.”
    She nodded and buttoned her shirt closed again.
    “Is it