I grinned, gulped it down, then pushed up and walked over to the kitchen counter. “Would you like a coffee?”
“Yeah, thanks.” She flipped the page of the old book. “According to this, the best way to kill a soucouyant is to find its skin and salt it. That prevents it from returning to its own form.”
“But still leaves it in fire form, which—if today's events were any demonstration—is decidedly more dangerous.”
“That's if it's the same demon responsible for both the attack on you and all the other deaths. There are some inconsistencies.”
I made the coffees and walked back, handing her one before sitting down again. “Like why, if it had its own skin, was it stealing others?”
“Precisely.”
“I don't suppose any of the other fire spirits mentioned strip their victims of their skin and then steal their identities?”
“No—or, at least, they're not mentioned in this book.”
Of course not. When were things ever that easy? “Hopefully Monty will be able to find something in the witch archives.”
“You'd think so,” she said. “After all, it is the major collection center for any and all information on the supernatural in Australia.”
“And yet it was still your gran—and her books—that bluebloods came to when they wanted information on all things magic and the occult.”
“That's because she was awesome, Sarr witch or not.”
She wasn't going to get an argument about that from me. Nell might have died before either Belle and I had been born, but Belle's mom had told us so many stories about her that she felt very real to the both of us. And now her legacy—the vast majority of her books—was Belle's. Not all of the books were here, though—we simply didn't have the room. Most were carefully stored in a humidity controlled off-site storage unit that was surrounded by multiple layers of both protection and repellent spells. Nothing was getting into that unit without our consent—not even smallest of bugs.
“So if we are dealing with two separate demons,” I said, “how do we kill a fire spirit?”
She wrinkled her nose. “There's a couple of options, and no guarantee any of them will work. I think Gran was just compiling information rather than speaking from experience when it came to these sorts of entities.”
“Anything would be better than what we've currently got.”
“Which is nothing.” Her grin flashed. “A containment spell, holy water, and silver are all suggested. No guarantees, as I said.”
“Maybe not, but it at least gives us a starting point.” And yet another reason for me to keep carrying the small bottle of holy water around with me.
A babble of noise drifted up from below and, a second later, Penny's face appeared at the top of the stairs. “The brigade just arrived.”
“On my way.” I pushed upright, gulped down my coffee, and headed downstairs. Belle followed me a few minutes later.
The twenty ladies kept us busy for the next couple of hours, but none of us minded because it certainly balanced the books for the day. We closed just after four, but by the time we'd done the till and cleaned up, it was well after five. I made us both a coffee, then walked across to the table.
Belle accepted her mug with a nod of thanks and then said, “Don't sit. Aiden's about to knock on the door.”
Happiness shot through me. I placed my coffee down then walked over, opening it just as he raised his hand to knock.
“About damn time, Ranger,” I grumbled, and then threw my arms around his neck, and kissed him very, very thoroughly.
“I missed you too,” he said eventually, his breath warm against my lips and his eyes bright with desire. He brushed a stray strand of hair away from my eyes, his fingers so warm and tender against my skin. “And I am totally glad to see you are indeed unhurt.”
“I wouldn't say unhurt. There are a few new scrapes and bruises, but all in all, we were lucky.”
“I've seen your car,” he said. “Trust me, I'm well aware of just how lucky you both were.”
“I'm gathering the car's a write-off then?” Belle said.
Aiden looked past me. “I'm afraid so. It's insured though, isn't it?”
“Yes, but I'm doubting being firebombed by a supernatural entity would be covered in the policy.”