Electric Heat (A Raven Investigations Novel Book 3) Read online

  ANCIENT MAGIC HAS BEEN UNLEASHED INTO THE WORLD. IT’S WILLING TO DO ANYTHING TO SURVIVE, EVEN IF IT MEANS WAR. ONLY ONE WOMAN CAN KILL IT…OR SET IT FREE.

  The local witches’ coven offers Raven a trade: Surrender herself to them for one week or give up a member of her pack. She thought they wanted to study her, but Raven discovers something far worse—murder. To save her pack, Raven must make the ultimate sacrifice…her freedom.

  WHEN DARKNESS IS UNLEASHED…NO ONE IS SAFE.

  Witches are being drained of power and killed using a wild magic that’s been dormant for centuries. Tasked with locating the one responsible for releasing it, Raven soon finds herself the prey rather than the hunter. The more lives the magic claims, the stronger the killer becomes. As she and her pack scramble to unravel the secrets of the coven, her own beast starts to wake, and she begins to wonder which is more dangerous…the killer or her beast. But one thing is sure, if the coven and pack don’t learn to work together, none of them will survive the coming storm.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, character, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations for articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials.

  Copyright © 2015 Stacey Brutger

  Cover artist: Amanda Kelsey of Razzle Dazzle Design (www.razzdazzdesign.com)

  Editor: Faith Freewoman (www.demonfordetails.com)

  All rights reserved.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A special thank you to all my reader and fans for their support.

  I wouldn’t be here without you.

  For all those who believed in me along the way:

  My fabulous editor, my parents and family,

  As well as my loving husband.

  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

  Chapter One

  DAY ONE: LAST NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON – TWO HOURS BEFORE SUNRISE

  Raven stood outside of the warehouse called Talons, the club where the fanged, furry, and spell slingers normally gathered to blow off steam. Tonight they were waiting for her to surrender herself. If she didn’t, she’d lose her pack, and everything they’d gone through would have been for nothing.

  She was a rare conduit, able to absorb and wield electricity. If the witches thought they were going to study her, then the joke was on them. In a desperate move to save a member of her pack, she’d set free the seething darkness inside her, and ended up breaking her only means of protecting others from her lethal touch.

  The beast she’d spent a lifetime repressing now raged below the surface. Whatever power she managed to gather just wasn’t strong enough to rebuild the core needed to contain it.

  Though her wounds had healed from the recent fight, it felt like she’d been dropped in a vat of acid, then rubbed with sandpaper for good measure. She felt so brittle even the slightest brush of air made her skin burn.

  The moon began its descent. As its rays hit her, she tensed and waited for the moon’s call to trickle through her. Waited for her creature to rise and take over, stealing the last bit of humanity she’d managed to preserve.

  Instead, the cool rays felt soothing.

  She should be relieved. No rampant desire. No lust demanding to be appeased. Which proved one of two things. Either her power had grown too strong, or, what she feared more, the creature who’d awakened within her was much too strong to be roused by the moon like a common shifter.

  She ignored her silent shadow—as much as one could ignore the ParaConsulate’s trained assassin—waiting for Randolph to make his move, but he seemed content to observe. Being watched grated on her nerves, and the beast beneath her skin bared its fangs, stretching as if testing the limits of her body.

  Her fingers curled into fists as she struggled to resist doing something stupid, like going over there and demanding he back off. She recognized her creature’s thoughts and impulses, but refused to cede control, not until she’d ensured her pack’s safety. She grabbed the power teeming under her skin and shoved the creature back. After a minute of struggle, the beast snarled but relented.

  For now.

  Soon one of them would snap, and Raven feared it would be her.

  Raven scanned her core…or where her core had once been. Nothing remained but a barren, desolate spot in her chest. She’d unleashed the creature to save Taggert when he nearly died while rescuing her. Now the creature fed off her power, stealing her last hope of eventually wrestling control back. Raven pushed deeper, hoping to find even a hint that her other animals had survived.

  A dark crater had swallowed everything, leaving behind a vast emptiness that left her reeling. When the aching loneliness threatened to smother her, she swallowed the lump in her throat and retreated from her core, firmly locking away the pain.

  She would survive one more week without imploding.

  She took strength in knowing Rylan awaited her beyond the club doors. When the vampire had been on the brink of starving to death, she’d refused to let him take the coward’s way out, refused to let the people in the labs win, and convinced him to take her blood. After one taste, he’d suspected the truth.

  That she wasn’t quite human.

  He’d seen her creature break from her hold once.

  Once had been enough.

  Raven remembered only vague snippets, but waking up covered with blood was not an experience she cared to repeat. Everything in their path had lain in ruins. It mattered little that it was the labs she’d decimated, the prison where human scientists had experimented on those with even the smallest hint of anything supernatural. Thank the gods enough of her had remained inside the creature to allow her fellow inmates to escape unharmed.

  After the destruction, Rylan had come back for her. Pulled her from the rubble. He should’ve let her die. Instead, he promised if she ever became a problem, he would eliminate the threat.

  The reason he was there tonight.

  To judge if she was worth saving.

  But first she was determined to do this one last job. She needed to secure her pack. The men had barged their way into her life, bound themselves to her and forced her to care, and she was very much afraid she couldn’t live without them. They’d sacrificed everything for her, now it was her turn to do the same for them…by surrendering to the witches.

  Any hope she’d harbored that the witches might be able to help her contain the creature lay crushed beneath the brutal truth.

  It was much too late for a cure.

  She took a shaky step toward the door.

  The magnetic locks created to keep out humans opened easily under her touch, revealing just how much things had changed in the past weeks.

  A babble of tense voices greeted her when she opened the door. All her rage and pain harden into resolve, and Raven pushed forward.

  “You’re late.” The witch rose as she spoke, her voice vibrating with outrage. Whatever else she was going to say evaporated when Raven stepped into the lights. The witch’s latte-colored skin paled, and her mouth snapped shut.

  Durant prowled forward from the back of the club, his complete attention riveted on her. The creature quieted a little under his regard, seeming almost pleased by his attention.

  “I’d recommend not touching her.” Randolph’s
voice came from behind her.

  Durant didn’t react to the suggestion in any way. He halted inches from her, scanning her from head to toe, leaving every inch of her tingling under his scorching regard. He didn’t seem shocked at her condition.

  Jackson, her overprotective enforcer, must have called to tell him what had happened. She wasn’t surprised.

  They’d warned her shifters were sly.

  Sneaky.

  Willing to do whatever it took to protect the pack.

  And since she was one of the rare female alphas, they took those rules to the extreme when she was involved.

  Durant lifted his hand to touch her, and Raven flinched. Her cheeks burned at the telling action, but more than anything she didn’t want him to touch the creature.

  He was hers.

  A little rumble vibrated in her chest, the creature protesting her declaration.

  “You have something in your hair.” Durant slowed his movement, refusing to retreat, his eyes shading to a brilliant gold with his emotions.

  She felt a tug, then he held up his hand.

  It was a chunk of meat.

  The piece was all that remained of the Professor who’d sought to destroy the pack and the peace the paranormal world had sacrificed and fought so hard to maintain.

  Only then was she aware of how she must appear. Even dressed in black, there was no concealing the fact that every inch of her was covered with bits of human remains. Congealed clumps of rotting blood splattered her face, the stench growing worse the longer it was exposed to air. Her stomach churned, and she feared she might vomit.

  “I’m sorry to be late. If you would grant me another hour to prepare, we can leave.”

  The witch gave a regal nod. The shock had worn off. What remained was more dangerous.

  Curiosity.

  * * *

  Raven followed Durant toward his office, noting his normally pristine clothes were rumpled. Memories of the last time she had entered his lair swamped her, the way he’d kissed her, demanded that she touch him. Her heart felt bruised at the thought of never touching him or the others in her pack again. Whatever future they might have together could never amount to anything if she didn’t find a way to survive the changes threatening to consume her. If the creature gained control, she would be nothing more than a rampaging beast.

  Her eyes locked on the office chair that stood so proudly displayed next to the desk, the one where he’d allowed himself to be cuffed, willing gave up all his precious control to her, just to gain a simple kiss. The sight of it nearly ripped out her heart, and she blindly turned away when her tangled emotions threatened to trip her up. But no matter how much distance she put between them, she couldn’t outrun the haunting leather scent that was uniquely his. She shivered, knowing even if she lived to be a hundred, she would recognize his delicious scent anywhere.

  The creature scratched beneath her skin, trying to chisel away the shell Raven was building between it and her pack. She couldn’t allow it freedom, couldn’t risk that it might harm those under her care.

  “You can clean up in here.” Durant’s impassive facade cracked, his gruff voice little more than a rumble.

  Heat blazed off him when she passed within inches from his tense body, but he held onto his control and maintained his distance. Water trickled behind the closed door. When she followed the sound into the bathroom, she stopped short. She should have expected something a little out of the ordinary, especially since he’d deemed her own bathroom inadequate and demolished it.

  The room was twice as large as his office. One entire wall was a waterfall, splashing into a huge pool at least twelve feet across.

  Large enough for a full-grown tiger.

  The mental image gave her pause.

  She tore her gaze away to find Durant opening a set of glass doors to a shower stall that was larger than her king sized bed and turned on the spray. Steam immediately filled the enclosed space. As he stepped out, his eyes met hers, and he marched straight toward her.

  Raven leaned to step back, then carefully placed her foot back down. She was not prey. She would not be chased. A stab of anxiety jabbed her, and she was unsure which thoughts were hers and which were the creature’s.

  “I can manage from here.”

  He halted, his hands clenching and unclenching. “I’ll abide by your wishes and not touch you, but your injuries need to be inspected, then dressed.”

  There was an awkward silence, more than space and steam separating them, and she bit her lip against the frantic need to bridge the growing distance. It was better this way. Raven knew if she asked, he’d leave her alone.

  So why couldn’t she force the words out?

  His indomitable pride would take a hit. He was already balanced on a razor’s edge about not being included in the forest raid. She was afraid if she pushed him any further, he’d never give her another chance, and the fragile feelings building between them would vanish forever.

  She gave a tiny nod and turned her back, catching the slight relaxation in his shoulders from the corner of her eye. He drew close enough for his breath to brush the back of her neck. She tensed, uncertain whether she would be able to reject him a second time if he touched her, but he only unlatched the necklace and carefully placed it on the stone countertop. The heat in the room gradually notched up, sinking below her skin, but nothing penetrated the bone-deep chill that had taken root.

  She tugged the shirt over her head, wincing when her ribs protested. Very conscious of Durant watching, she quickly shucked her boots. Her jeans were a little more resistant, dried blood gluing the denim to her thigh.

  A sharp tug released the pant leg, and the barely-healed wound throbbed in protest. She could still feel the bone sticking out of her thigh, but when she looked, she saw only smooth skin. That was if she discounted the throng of bruises that checkered her body. Ignoring the little growl from behind her, Raven did her best to cover her limp as she entered the shower. Every muscle protested the abuse she’d suffered a few hours earlier, and her legs quivered with the effort to remain upright. She couldn’t afford to show weakness, or her pack would never allow her to leave.

  Blood and gore plopped down on the shower floor as she stood under the pounding spray of six showerheads. After a few minutes, the water finally ran clean.

  A slight click of the door behind her made all her muscles tense into knots. She looked over her shoulder to see Durant join her in the shower. He had stripped down to just his jeans, leaving the broad expanse of chest on display. Completely oblivious to his impact on her, he lifted the soap.

  “Let me.” His voice was gruff, as if the words were hard to get out. “Please.”

  She could’ve argued with him, and he might have even listened, but she didn’t have the energy to lift her arms and do it herself. He slowly gathered her hair and soaped the tangled mess, careful not to tug on the snarled strands.

  Her head dropped forward while he massaged her scalp, and the last of the tension slowly fizzled away. She was pathetically grateful not to be alone with her thoughts. Nothing existed but his hands on her. Much sooner than she was ready, he withdrew and pushed her under the spray.

  Water and suds slid down her body. He nudged her, directing her to turn.

  When his fingers brushed the mark on her side, she went rigid. Her eyes cracked open and she glared, a snarl curling her lips at the stolen touch. She wasn’t used to anyone touching her and never in kindness.

  Normally, she wouldn’t give a damn, but the last thing she wanted was for him to ask questions about the mark. It was somehow tied to the creature, and until she discovered the connection, she wanted to keep it secret.

  He held up his hands in surrender and stilled. It took everything in her to resist shuffling closer and laying hands on him. She wasn’t sure whether she would rip him apart or rub up against him, and she wouldn’t risk his life to find out.

  They remained at a stalemate until he finally spoke. “You need to finish ri
nsing the soap from your hair. Come out when you’re ready.”

  Then he was gone.

  By the time she emerged, he was in dry clothes, waiting with a ginormous towel held open between his hands. She expected to see his face politely averted the way Taggert would do to preserve her privacy. But no, his eyes swept over her, noticing every detail. He expertly examined her injuries, appearing detached, that was if you didn’t notice the heat lurking in those green-gold eyes of his. His perusal left her feeling exposed, and she couldn’t decide if she wanted to stretch under his attention or cover herself with her hands.

  Her creature enjoyed the attention, though, slowing her steps, drawing out the process. Recognition flashed in Durant’s eyes, and his control wavered, revealing an explosive hunger that wouldn’t be appeased with just a kiss. Her insides fluttered with pure desire, then went squishy with panic when she realized the creature was manipulating them both.

  Raven reached for her power, ready to shock some sense into both her and her creature, but the energy hardened like armor under her skin. She could only scratch at it, unable to scrounge together even the smallest spark.

  Fine. She couldn’t draw on the power, but she could still influence it. She focused on the crackling energy in the links of the armor and clamped down. The power increased its voltage to a hum, and the armor turned into an electric cage around the creature. The beast hissed in rage at being held captive again, then released its hold over her, settling down to sulk. Raven sucked in a sharp breath when every painful volt sank into her bones.

  The jolt was a brutal wakeup call.

  For the first time, Raven understood the creature was truly a part of her.

  The longer it remained free, every second they spent together, only strengthened their bond.

  Unless she did something soon, destroying the creature would mean destroying herself.