Blood Kissed (Lizzie Grace 1)

“Anything you tell the rangers must also be passed on to us,” Blume said, as if I hadn’t spoken. “Failure to do so will be seen as noncompliance.”

“Anything I tell the rangers will surely be passed on as a matter of fact, wouldn’t it?” I asked, feigning innocence.

“In theory, yes. But just in case—” Hart paused and retrieved a business card from his pocket. “Please call us direct, day or night.”

I accepted the card without comment and watched them walk out the door.

“If you do call them,” Belle said, as she stopped beside me, “I suggest you do so at night—the later the better.”

“A most excellent plan, my friend.”

As much as I wanted nothing more than to go upstairs with a bottle of alcohol and forget everything, I very much suspected we didn’t have that sort of time to waste. Our vampire would be active again tonight, which meant we only had five more hours of daylight left to try and find our zombie. I also had to unpick whatever spell had been placed on the bloodstone—although it was totally possible that it wouldn’t even be active now that Karen was dead.

But that was something I could attempt tonight, when I had the strength of the full moon and the protection of a pentagram behind me. I wasn’t even going to go near the thing until then.

“It might also be wise to use silk gloves with that watch,” Belle said. “It’ll mute some of the foul sensations rolling off the thing.”

“Good idea.” I got my phone out and sent Aiden a text. I wanted him by my side when I attempted to find Mason, and not just because he’d demanded it. I simply didn’t want the responsibility of having to take the kid down when—if—we found him. His soul might be long gone and his body no longer capable of independent thought, feeling, or memory, but I was witch enough to want to avoid killing if it was at all possible.

Aiden’s response was almost immediate, and stated he’d be here in ten minutes. I shoved the phone back into my pocket. “How much holy water have we got left?”

Belle wrinkled her nose. “Only a couple of bottles. I’ve sent out some feelers to see if there’re any priests in the area willing to supply some more.”

“The association’s representative might be able to point us in the right direction.”

“If,” Belle said, “said representative hasn’t got his nose stuck as far up his butt as those IIT chaps.”

I grinned. “It could be just us. We do have a tendency to almost immediately get on people’s wrong sides.”

“Not everyone,” she said. “Zak was absolutely delighted to see me last night.”

“That’s because Zak is a sensible werewolf anticipating hot sex.”

She grinned. “And he’s already rung me a couple of times today—one night was not enough, apparently.”

I glanced at her as I stepped to one side to allow Penny past. “Meaning it was enough for you?”

“Hell no, but there’s a whole lot of truth in the old ‘play it lean, keep them keen’ saying.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Since when is that an old saying?”

She waved a hand airily. “I don’t do mean, so it makes a whole lot more sense my way.”

I snorted softly. “As if you’re going to resist that man for too long.”

“Oh, I don’t intend to.” Her smile faded as seriousness touched her expression. “But after last night’s events, I have every intention of being with you when you attempt to unravel the spell on that bloodstone.”

I nodded. As determined as I might be that Belle have a life outside the confines of being my familiar, I did in truth need her there, just in case the magic on the bloodstone was either far darker than it felt, or triggered an evil beyond the protection of the pentagram.

“I won’t be doing anything before midnight,” I said. “That does give you a little time with him, if you wanted.”

“As tempting as that is, I need to rest. One of us needs to be at full strength.”

Which I certainly wasn’t. I might be ignoring it, but tiredness still rode me and there were niggling aches all over my body. What I needed was twenty-four hours of decent sleep and several large meals of steak and veg, and right now I couldn’t see either in my immediate future.

“Meaning you’re in need of another potion boost.” Belle paused, and a somewhat devilish smile touched her lips. “I think I’ll make one for our ranger, too. He was looking a little ragged around the edges.”

“Don’t make it too foul-tasting,” I warned. “He’ll probably think you’re trying to poison him.”