Hell's Bell (Lizzie Grace 2)

“Made of blessed water,” she finished, and nodded. “I would have thought a pentagram would have been of more use.”

“It would, but it’s not like we have candles or our athames with us right now.”

“Given he is strong enough to control this spirit, will not he sense the formation of your magic?”

I hesitated. “Perhaps. It would depend greatly on how much training he has and just how instinctive his magic is. Many half-breeds get the ability without the instincts.”

Which was what ultimately made half-breeds so dangerous—if you couldn’t see and sense magic, either your own or another’s, you really couldn’t master it.

Given his control over the dark spirit, he has to have inherited some instincts.

Not necessarily. There’s been many nongifted people over the years who’ve successfully controlled the destructive nature of the dark ones. I mentally shrugged. Either way, our priority has to be the soul eater.

“And once you have done the circle?” Maelle said. “What then?”

I pulled out the knife, tucked it into my belt, and then grabbed the potions and holy water, handing the latter to Belle. “Then, hopefully, we’ll pin it within whatever body it’s using and kill it.”

“Hopefully is not the most encouraging word you can use in this type of sit—” She stopped and cocked her head sideways. “Roger informs me that Leanne Jones—one of my feeders—desires to see me urgently.”

“Could you ask Roger if he notices anything different with her? Particularly with her eyes?”

She nodded, and after a moment said, “Her eyes are black. Solid black.”

“Meaning the soul eater has taken her.”

“I will,” she said, her voice holding as little emotion as her expression, and sending yet another round of shivers down my spine, “truly enjoy tearing this bastard apart.”

“Let’s deal with soul eater first,” I bit back. “Unless you want your remaining feeders to end up as soul eater breakfast.”

The deadness in her gaze zeroed in on me, and just for a heartbeat, I saw death.

Maelle was not someone I ever wanted to make an enemy of, because that death would come for me.

Then she blinked and smiled. It did nothing to ease the trembling inside. “Indeed I do not. Proceed.”

I swallowed heavily and then said, “Invite her up, but tell Roger to take her the long way around. We need ten minutes to set up.”

“Jack’s just walked into a vampire’s base intent on destruction,” Belle said. “That means he’s either insane or extremely confident in both his skills and the strength of the spirit he controls. Either way, it makes him as dangerous as his creature.”

“I know, but we can only deal with one threat at a time.” I returned my gaze to Maelle. “Can you also ask Roger to ring Aiden? We need to get the RWA witch here ASAP.”

Maelle nodded. “And my customers? Should we not evacuate this place?”

I hesitated and glanced at Belle. She shrugged. “He’d have to be wearing some form of concealment charm. Evacuating the club will just give him cover to escape.”

“And yet,” Maelle said, “the minute you deal with his creature, he might well leave anyway.”

“Let’s hope he does, because it’ll make dealing with him less dangerous for everyone else here.” I hesitated. “Push far enough away from your desk so that we can walk between you and it; once we’ve done so and the containment lines have been drawn, don’t go near them or in any way break through them. Not until the soul eater is dealt with.”

“If you’re intending to confine me to this room, you will not succeed. That door is not my only way out.”

“I’m not trying to confine you, just the soul eater,” I said, even as I tucked away the handy information that this room had a second means of escape.

She sat down, calmly picked up her drink, and then pushed back from the desk. Only the utter whiteness of her gaze gave any indication of the murderous fury she was controlling.

No matter what happened in the next few minutes, Jack Lea and Molly were not long for this world.

I glanced at Belle and, as one, we began the incantation. Belle walked one way, I walked the other, both of us murmuring the same words, building and layering the threads of our magic together as we slowly drew a circle around the desk with the holy water and the warding potions. We didn’t close it, however, but walked instead to the open doorway and stood in the shadows clustered on either side of it.