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Her first victim might have died in bliss, but Jason Harding had not.
I wrenched open the door and raised my hand. But before I could unleash the encasement spell, the soucouyant charged.
I reacted instinctively, throwing myself backward and raising the knife. As my butt hit the ground, the soucouyant’s fiery form flowed around the blade and then fled. I cursed and flung my spell after it; the soucouyant spun around, as if daring the spell to catch it, and then continued on into the trees. I flicked my hand and sent a bright thread spooling after her. It was a last, desperate lash of power. Just for a moment, I thought it had succeeded, as fire flared briefly through the trees. Then the darkness returned and the fiery thread was left trailing behind the main portion of the spell as it sped on into the darkness. It would stop as soon as it hit something. Unfortunately, that something wouldn’t be the soucouyant, as the spell hadn’t included a tracker.
I swore in frustration at my own lack of knowledge then turned to look at the car—and only then realized the damn thing was on fire. She might have fled, but she’d left a parting gift.
As thick smoke billowed from the interior of the vehicle, I scrambled upright, grabbed Harding’s arms, and heaved him out of the car. Or tried to. His body was quite literally a dead weight.
“Here, let me.” Duke pushed me out of the way and grabbed Harding from me. As he pulled Harding from the car, Tala stepped past him, a fire extinguisher in one hand. There was a fierce hiss of air, then foam erupted into the car. But this fire was not natural, and there was no extinguishing it. Not until it had done the task it had been set.
“Tala, Duke, run,” I said, and immediately did just that.
We were perhaps a dozen steps away from the car when it exploded. A blast of heat and air hit all three of us and sent us tumbling. I skidded through the dirt for several yards and stopped just short of the SUV’s front tires. As bits of metal, plastic, and flaming fabric rained all around me, I swore again and scrambled under the truck for protection.
Between the fiery deluge and the thick smoke billowing from the remains of the Kia, visibility was down to practically zero. I couldn’t see either Tala or Duke, but Harding lay on the ground ten feet away.
He was on fire.
And the smell....
I gagged and pinched my nose. Breathing through my mouth helped, but only a little.
So why him? Belle asked. Why not you or the rangers?
I have no idea.
She’d certainly had both the time and the opportunity to attack us—and could have done so even before I’d opened the back door. So why wait until the last moment?
Why sit on the console waiting for me to see her? She certainly didn’t appear to fear either me, my magic, or the knife.
Perhaps she’s taunting you.
Why on earth would a fire spirit do that?
Maybe she’s a very old spirit. Maybe simple seduction is no longer enough for her. Belle mentally shrugged. Until we know more about soucouyants, we won’t know if this is normal behavior or not.
Hopefully, Monty’s searches will have more success than ours.
Given he’s got both the national and international libraries at his disposal, I suspect he will. She paused. Aiden’s just sent me home, so I’ll go through Gran’s books again and see if I can find anything else on them.
Is everything okay at the club?
Yeah. As expected, Maelle’s not a happy camper—especially now that Aiden’s confiscated the security tapes for the last week.
I’m betting she has a backup system somewhere.
The fiery rain of car bits had eased, so I carefully climbed out from under the SUV. My shoulder vehemently protested the movement, and there was moisture running down my right thigh, but all in all, I’d once again escaped relatively unharmed.
But between these new scrapes and the previous ones, I was going to be a sore mess in the coming days.
Oh, she definitely has. I think it’s more a case of her not wanting him to see who, exactly, visits her establishment.
That made sense, especially given she apparently had a series of “special rooms” that weren’t open to the general public. Did she say anything else?
Just that Roger was in the process of going through the secondary tapes, and would contact us if he spots her first victim with the soucouyant or anyone else the night he was murdered—though I’m not sure how knowing that will help the situation any.
It’ll tell us if she’s using the club as her hunting ground. It’d also tell us whether she was capable of taking on more than one form.
