Demon's Vengeance The Complete - Jocelynn Drake Page 0,27

my lovely Trixie had decided to stay at my place rather than retreat to her own apartment. Fuck, this had been a long night!

“Shall we get on with trying to identify Kyle’s killer so we both can return to our respective homes before the sun rises?”

Serah jerked at my question as if suddenly remembering why she had come back to Asylum with me in the first place. She twisted around, looking for where she had dropped both the tissue and the box of matches. Scooping them up, she hesitantly joined me back at the circle I had drawn in the dirt.

“What are you going to do?” The soft waver was still in her voice, but she was fighting hard to bounce back from shock.

“It’s an identity spell. I’m afraid that the blood might be too damaged for an actual tracking spell, but we might be able to get a glimpse of what this bastard looks like.”

Reaching over, I plucked the box of matches out of her hand and tossed them onto the ground next to the jug of water. Pulling the jar of sea salt out of my pocket, I unscrewed the lid and handed her the jar.

“Sprinkle the salt over the tissue, but be careful not to get the salt in the circle.”

Stepping back from the circle, Serah held the balled-up paper towel out with the tips of two fingers and very carefully sprinkled a few salt crystals on it. I rolled my eyes at the sight. She was acting as if I had just handed her a dangerous acid that was going to dissolve her fingers.

“It’s sea salt. It’s not going to hurt you if it touches you,” I said blandly.

Her narrowed eyes snapped to my face. “I didn’t know that! You said you’re doing magic. I thought this was dangerous shit.”

“Magic can be dangerous, but I’m not going to give you something dangerous after you just held me at gunpoint. Now really put some salt on that thing, please.”

After making a face at me, Serah put the paper towel in the palm of her hand and liberally poured the salt over it. “Why am I doing this?”

“Salt is good for nullifying potions and some spells,” I explained as I knelt on the ground and unscrewed the lid of the water jug. “Kyle’s potion is in that blood and I need to hinder as much of it as possible if I’m going to get to the blood’s owner.”

“Yeah, but why am I doing this?”

“I thought you’d want to help,” I said with a smirk. “That and I don’t want the salt on my hands. It could mess with my control of the spell.”

“And that’d be bad.”

“Real bad,” I muttered, watching the salt slip through her fingers and rain onto the floor. I’d have to go through tomorrow and try to pick up most of the salt. I didn’t want to risk it coming back to bite me in the ass later when I was casting down here. “That should be enough. Hand me the jar and carefully shake any remaining salt out of the paper towel.”

Screwing on the lid on, I shoved the half-empty jar back into my pocket as Serah rejoined me at the circle.

“What are you going to do?”

“Build a killer,” I said with a smile that she didn’t return. Picking up the jug, I held it out so she could see it. “All living creatures have at least three basic elements. Earth.” I paused and pointed to the nice, fresh dirt within the circle. The shit was expensive. It took me two years to have it all shipped in from a remote island in the Pacific. “Water.” I held up the jug of water, which had started as snow. This snow water was from the first snowfall of 2011, which turned out to be a heavy snow year. Pouring the water into my cupped left hand, I then sprinkled it over the dirt within the circle. I repeated this three times while whispering the first words of the spell. After a moment, the drops stopped falling and were captured in the air, becoming a mist.

“Whoa,” Serah whispered, taking a tiny step backward. “And the third is the blood,” she said, holding out the paper towel toward me.

I shook my head, but smiled encouragingly at her. It was a good guess. Putting the jug back on the ground, I grabbed the box of wooden matches and withdrew one. “Nope. It’s energy. The closest I can come