Demon's Dance (Lizzie Grace 4)

“Good.” I kissed him quickly and then hurried into the reading room before my suddenly awake hormones were tempted to do anything more.

I shoved all the furniture aside yet again and then sat on the floor. I’d designed his charm to mimic the neck-cords I’d seen many younger wolves wearing, so it had three different-colored leathers as well as a copper strand. It protected him from ill-intent, evil spirits, and most curses except for those created by blood witches, but it wouldn’t protect him from something as strong as this soucouyant. And it certainly wouldn’t protect him against any sort of arcane fire—and that’s what was needed right now.

I took a deep breath and carefully deactivated the charm. Then I undid the sealing thread and began to weave the new protections through the various other spells. It took more energy than I really had, and by the time I’d finished, my eyes were watering with the pain in my head and all I wanted to do was sleep. I didn’t bother pushing the furniture back. I just headed out and handed Aiden the charm.

He accepted it with a frown. “Are you okay?”

I waved a hand. “I will be. I’ve just woven new spells through three charms in the space of a couple of hours, and it takes a toll.”

“You’d best go upstairs and grab some sleep then. I'd rather not be relying on just Monty tomorrow if your vision does come true.”

“If my vision comes true, Monty will be the actual problem.” I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “Let’s just hope that I’m wrong.”

“Indeed.”

He caught my hand and tugged me into his arms. He didn’t kiss me, didn’t do anything more than simply hold me, and once again, it made me feel safer than I’d ever felt before.

“I’d better go. Otherwise you won’t be the only one in no fit state to cope with problems tomorrow.”

He kissed the top of my head and pulled away. I stopped him, then wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him with all the fire and passion bubbling inside.

“That,” I said, after a long while, “is how we say goodnight where I come from.”

“A method I highly approve of.” Amusement creased the corners of his bright eyes. “Only trouble is, it’s one that inevitably leads to a restless night.”

My gaze skimmed down his body and a grin split my lips. “I’m sure you’re quite capable of taking that problem in hand.”

“I think I’d rather wait until you can take the problem in hand.”

“Which is a distinct possibility, but only after the soucouyant is caught.”

“I can wait.” He bent and kissed me again. Then, with a soft curse that spoke of frustration, he turned and stalked toward the door. I watched until he’d climbed safely into the SUV and driven away, and then locked the door and headed upstairs. Where I collapsed into a deep, unbroken sleep.

I was late waking the next morning, but the headache had at least disappeared. After a quick shower to freshen up, I clattered down the stairs to help with the café. We had a steady flow of customers all day, and there was a whole lot of discussion and nervousness about the recent spate of murders—and most of it didn’t come from the brigade. Aiden was right—if the council didn’t release a statement, there was going to be trouble. It would be interesting to see what they actually said, though, because I very much doubted telling everyone there was a murderous fire spirit loose in the reservation would in any way ease the nervousness.

Monty appeared near six, a backpack slung over his shoulder and his expression suggesting he was simply humoring me. Not that it mattered. Not if doing so kept him safe.

After we’d eaten dinner, I made us all a cappuccino and brought them over to the table. “How are we going to track this thing now that we haven’t got the other one?”

Monty accepted his coffee with a nod of thanks. “I’m not really sure. The only thing Jamie—my mate in Canberra—could come up with was doing some sort of heat-seeking spell. But that would only work outside Castle Rock, simply because there’re too many points of heat within the city center.”

Belle took a sip of her coffee and then leaned back in the chair. “What if you set a specific heat level within the spell? That would cut out much of the heat chatter from the city itself.”

“Good idea, but there’s one problem—I’ve never come across a heat-seeking spell. Jamie is still going through the archives to see what he can find.”

I frowned. “There surely has to be something somewhere. Soucouyants and fire spirits have been around for as long as witches—if not longer.”

“Maybe so, but that doesn’t alter the fact there’s nothing in the everyday databanks.” Monty picked up a teaspoon and scooped up some of the froth on the top of the coffee. “I’ve asked him to instigate a European search. We might have greater luck in more ancient archives.”

I frowned. “How long is that likely to take though?”

“He’ll make it as a priority one request, so it could take a couple of hours or it could take a couple of days.” He shrugged. “So unless we can fudge a spell—and I’m not really certain that’s the best option right now—then we’ve no other choice but to wait.”

“I don’t think we can afford to.” Especially when any sort of delay might lead to someone else dying. Belle, what’s the likelihood of us finding something in your books?

Who knows? I did pull a couple of spell books from the boxes, but they’re not indexed so we’ll have to go through them.

And that will have to be done tonight if we’re to have any hope of catching this thing before it kills again. I paused. It also means we’ll have to let Monty know about your gran’s books.