Raven grunted, her anxiety over their safety turning to anger. “Jase, get the boys downstairs and alert the others.”
Without waiting for him to agree, Raven shoved upright and sprinted away from them, making herself a target. She picked up speed, then leapt over the waist-high stone railing around the edges of the roof.
Wind tugged at her hair and clothes. As the ground rushed up toward her, she bit back a curse, suddenly remembering the lack of her animal counterparts.
As if her thoughts summoned them, an unfamiliar heat burned in her veins, and she seemed to glide through the air. The sensations were different, sharper and deeper, the world around her appeared to be shaped in four dimensions. She really was no longer human…possibly never had been.
Whether magical or beastly, apparently neither side wanted her dead, and she landed lightly in a crouch. Spotting Taggert barreling toward the tree line, Raven pushed off the ground and shot after him.
She saw movement ahead, a blur that disappeared into the trees, and she guessed it was their shooter. She should be relieved that they were retreating, but unease speared through her.
Retreating made no sense.
Why not take another shot?
Unless they got exactly what they wanted…for her to chase after them.
They wanted to get her alone.
Isolate her from the others.
“Taggert.” She slowed her step, but he acted as if he didn’t hear, too focused on vengeance. Not willing to leave Taggert alone to pay the consequences, she kept pace with him, slowly gaining ground when he entered the trees.
As soon as she entered the forest, the shadows deepened. Her eyes adjusted automatically, but it was already too late.
She’d lost sight of Taggert.
She tried to use her link to the pack to locate Taggert, but no matter how much she concentrated, he was a blank space in her head.
A spike of panic struck her hard, and she reached for the others, only able to breathe again when she managed to contact Durant.
“We have company. We’re giving chase out back.”
His cat hissed in fury, while his cold voice seethed in her head. “You will cease immediately and return to the house.”
His command was so loud it thundered in her head, and she winced at the way the words were hammered in her skull. “Can’t. Taggert is already on the hunt, and his beast is in control. I won’t leave him behind.” She swallowed hard and voice her greatest fear. “I think something happened to him.”
“Stop!” Durant roared. “It’s a trap.”
“I know,” she answered softly, then heard him swear viciously.
“We’re on our way. The patrols are narrowing down your location.” He paused, and his voice deepened, a husky whisper in her head. “Stay safe. For me.”
He pulled away, not wishing to distract her, but she missed his presence.
As she slipped farther into the forest behind the mansion, it merged seamlessly with the government land abutting her property.
She had negotiated a deal with the Council to hand over the unclaimed land to the rogues. Every day their numbers continued to swell. While they now had the ability to form their own pack and claim their own alpha, their loyalty was to her.
She was the only one who fought for them.
She gave them a way to survive.
Something they would never forget.
As she raced through the trees, her spirits plummeted when Taggert seemed to have completely disappeared, leaving only a small trail of blood behind. She followed the miniscule droplets until the familiar stench of decay tinged the air, combined with a cloying stink of sweat that she associated with the enhanced soldiers who had attacked earlier.
Raven picked up speed, worried that they had somehow managed to take down a berserker, and her fear for Taggert became a living thing that threatened to choke her.
Chapter Thirteen
Raven burst into a clearing to find Taggert and Randolph circling each other, both of them bloodied and battered while they continued to trade brutal blows. She winced at the fleshy sounds, but noted that they weren’t tearing into each other like normal shifters, more like methodically beating the shit out of the other instead. And they were succeeding.
“Stop!”
But the men acted as if they hadn’t heard her. She took a step closer, ready to fling herself between them, when she felt something brush lightly against the back of her neck.
“What the fuck!” She whirled to see a man carefully step away from her. He licked his lips, as if savoring her taste, his long, narrow tongue reminding her of a reptile, and she scrubbed at the back of her neck, realizing that he’d licked her. Oily slime coated her hands. No matter how hard she tried to wipe it off, all she managed to do was spread the sickly sweet oil.
Not ten feet away from him lay the body of a college-age kid, his body discarded and sprawled out like a broken toy. The poor guy was ripped to shreds, and she didn’t doubt Taggert had found his prey. A shattered rifle was scattered over the forest floor next to him.
She quickly brought her attention back to the creepy guy. Instead of fear, a cruel smile twisted his mouth while he watched the men tear into each other. The man was scruffy, his dark hair tinged gray and snarled in knots. His scraggly facial hair made him appear homeless.
His tongue flickered over his lips again, and she hunched her shoulders as the sensation of his cold tongue replayed in her mind. A trick of the dim light made his pupils seem slitted, not round.
He wasn’t armed, but something about him warned her not to act rashly.
Keep her distance.
When he lifted his gaze to meet her eyes, his smile widened, and a shiver raked down her spine at the predatory look, nothing in him remotely human.
“Who are you?” She didn’t have to ask him what he wanted. His soulless eyes said it all…he wanted her dead.
“You may call me Master.”
Raven wanted to snort with laughter at the egotistical bastard, but a low hum slammed into her head, making concentration difficult. She found herself nodding, then quickly stopped, scowling at him. “I don’t think so.”
He frowned, clearly not pleased when she didn’t immediately obey.
“Kill her.” He spoke with a rasp, his voice echoing in the glen, his attention steady on her. The hairs on the back of her neck rose when Taggert and Randolph stopped exchanging blows and robotically turned in her direction. Their eyes were unfocused, glazed over, not seeing the world around them, their expressions lax as they dutifully shuffled toward her.
“Guys.” A wisp of unease drifted through her, and her gut churned with acid, when neither of them stopped their relentless trudge toward her.
Calling up her power, she focused on Taggert. “Stop.”
He halted, his brows furrowed as he stared at her in befuddlement, no recognition in his eyes, and a chill sliced down to her bones. Randolph didn’t react at all, continuing his advance, and she backed away from him to maintain her distance.
The stranger straightened from the tree, a scowl on his face as he glared at Taggert. “Kill her.” He practically spit out the words.
The confusion disappeared, his face went slack, and Taggert once again began to shuffle in her direction.
Fed up with playing games, worried about any lasting effect from the creep’s hold had over Taggert and Randolph, Raven decided to take them out of the equation. She reached for the power that kept them conscious and drew down hard.
Taggert staggered then dropped, and she winced when his body thudded heavily to the ground. Randolph was different. He had his own power supply and resisted her pull. Heat seared along her hands as she pulled more and more energy out of him until he finally staggered and collapsed to his knees.
It had to be good enough. She was afraid if she took any more from him she would end up killing him…or herself. While he might be a menace to society, he was her menace.
“What the hell do you thin
k you’re doing?” She edged around the men on the ground, working her way toward the stranger. Instead of backing way or attacking, he merely raised his brows in challenge.
His cockiness made her pause, and she was afraid what would happen to Taggert and Randolph if she killed the man while they remained under his control. She resolutely tucked away her power, clenching her hands into fists, determined to bring him down the old-fashioned way—by brute force.
She swung at him, using her whole body, putting as much power into the blow as possible. The man didn’t duck or twist out of the way, and her knuckles cracked into his jaw, knocking him clear off his feet. She ignored the way her hand smarted, the slight film of slime that was left behind on her knuckles, and began to stalk her prey.
“Stop.” His voice echoed strangely in her head, the word like a hiss, the command sounding as if multiple people were speaking at once.
Raven scowled at him, the impulse to obey twining through her. Voices whispered in her head, repeating the command over and over, urging her to obey. The longer she fought against his command, the more insistent they became. His voice wasn’t hypnotic like Durant’s, more like a compulsion. The rest of the world fell silent until all she could hear was him.
Every voice strengthened the impulse to obey, and it became harder and harder to fight.
Leaves rustled behind her, and she was barely conscious of Randolph making his way toward her until he latched onto her arm in a bruising grip, his other hand reaching for her neck. The moment his sweaty fingers brushed her throat, his powers rose…and so did hers.
In a clash of magic, she was flung backwards, smacking the ground so hard her ears rang. It was enough to drown out the drone of voices. She watched Randolph thump hard to the ground before he dragged himself to his feet and staggered toward her with an eerily blank expression.
He wasn’t going to stop.
Raven struggled to her feet and saw the Master glaring at her with hatred in his black, soulless eyes.
She would not be controlled.
When she punched the asshole, neither of the other men were affected. Going by instinct, she called forth her power and flung it at the man. Thanks to her practice, instead of incinerating the bastard, a fireball slammed into his chest and shoved him backwards, ass over teakettle. He lay sprawled out on the ground, smoke rising from his clothes, his singed flesh reeking.
The whispering voices stopped, the fire having burned away the thick oil that had soaked into her fingers. She brought her hands to the back of her neck, calling the flames again to get rid of the remaining substance.
The action left her dizzy, and nausea rolled over her, leaving her legs shaking pathetically.
Randolph stopped his zombie walk toward her. He shook his head, a spark of life returning to his face. He glanced around the clearing in confusion, noting the bodies, the signs of a fight, until his gaze finally landed on her. Awareness returned slowly, and recognition shimmered in his eyes. “What the hell is going on?”
He flexed his hands, and she didn’t think it had anything to do with his sore knuckles.
“Check your hands.”
He frowned, staring down at his palms before wiping them off on his pants.
“You have to burn it away. Whatever the substance is, it allowed him to control you.” She pointed to the man who remained sprawled out on the ground.
Raven didn’t offer to help Randolph, but watched him flick out a lighter and run it over his skin. Black smoke billowed in the air like a toxic cloud. She could tell as soon as the chemicals burned away, because Randolph dropped to the ground and heaved up the contents of his stomach.
Minutes later, he lifted his head and dark, furious eyes met hers. “Who?”
His voice was barely above a growl, and she resisted taking a step back, then pointed to the man spread-eagled on the ground behind her, glad his wrath wasn’t directed at her. Randolph struggled to his feet, staggering over to the prone figure.
Raven hurried toward Taggert, concerned when he didn’t wake up immediately, worried that she might have accidently hurt him. She carefully rolled him on his back, surprised again at how much he had bulked up in the recent months.
She sagged, falling sideways on her ass in relief when she noticed his even breathing, then gingerly placed her hand on his chest, needing to feel the steady, reassuring beat of his heart.
Then she spotted the blood staining the side of his shirt.
She carefully rolled up the shirt, wincing when the fabric stuck to his skin. His body was littered with bruises and cuts, but what captured her attention was the bullet wound. He must have shifted out of the way of the bullet in time, but the bullet still managed to crease his ribs. The gouge was deep, the flesh not healing as fast as she expected, which meant they used silver bullets.
But at least the bleeding had stopped.
She carefully lowered his shirt. When she lifted her head, she spied Randolph reaching down, no doubt to finish the man off.
“Wait!” Raven called out.
He stiffened at her command, and she raised a hand in surrender, keeping one hand firmly on Taggert’s chest, afraid if she released him, he would slip away from her. “If you touch that creep, you might fall under his control again.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously, the nondescript mask he presented to the world torn away, exposing raw, savage fury beneath. “Won’t be a problem if I kill him.”
“If you touch him I don’t think you’ll be able to kill anything,” she warned. No way would the bastard still be alive this long unless he had a fail-safe in place. She doubted that the creepy guy had licked her guys, so his skin must secrete some kind of oil that made people susceptible to him.
“Not a problem.” Golden sparks flashed between Randolph’s fingers, and he leaned over to fry the guy.
“Wait!” Randolph gave her an exasperated look, and she grimaced to find some of his annoyance now directed at her. “I need him alive so I can find out who’s trying to kill me.”
He hesitated, clearly aggrieved as he huffed out a breath and straightened. Then he swung back his foot and kicked the body so hard, she could hear ribs cracking, even from the distance. She sighed, and Randolph gave her an unapologetic shrug as he backed away to lean against the tree and glare at the prone figure.
Raven released a breath, knowing she should be grateful that he’d paid attention to her at all.
A series of excited yips and howls filled the clearing, sounding like a pack of vicious dogs when they caught her scent. Instead of feeling alarmed, she relaxed and sagged over Taggert.
Backup was near.
It wasn’t long before a dark shape streaked into the clearing.
Durant.
He rocked to a halt on the other side of Taggert, crouched, staring at her with golden eyes. He looked wild, as if he could no longer hold his tiger back from manifesting. His untamed mane of hair was in disarray, the many tints resembling stripes, and she curled her fingers into fists to keep from reaching out to touch.
He raked her with his gaze for a full minute, searching for injuries, and she shivered under his invasive perusal. When his eyes eventually returned to hers, she shivered at the heated promise of retribution for disobeying.
“Raven—”
“We need to get the men back to the house.” She cut off his growl. “We don’t know how many more people could be waiting, or what powers they might possess.”
He narrowed his eyes dangerously, physically struggling to hold onto his beast. When he jolted to his feet, she half expected him to step over Taggert and sweep her up in his arms. She dug her fingers into Taggert’s shirt, not ready to leave him behind, not until he woke up.
“Durant…”
As if understanding her silent plea, Durant sighed, deflating a bit and bent, scooping Taggert up into his arms like he weighed nothing. Raven scrambled to her feet, aware of the wolves prowling around the clearing, the men in both two and four-legged form.
Jamie’s face was hard as he surveyed the area, clearly displeased to have his borders breached again.
He met her gaze and shook his head. “Go back to the house. We’ll increase the patrols. You’re safe.”
He said it like a vow, and she didn’t doubt him. She hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. “Be careful.”
His face softened, and he gave her a brisk nod. Even as she watched, his wolves scattered, trying to pick up the intruders’ scents, while others began to sanitize the area. Once done, thanks to the wolves’ incredible sense of smell, not even a drop of blood would remain.
When a group of men headed toward the one who called himself Master, she scurried after them. “Don’t touch him.”
Everyone froze, some of the wolves even cringing away from her, and she winced at her tone. “I think his skin is toxic.”
A couple of wolves inched forward in their animal forms, then quickly drew back, sneezing as if they smelled something bad. A few of the men glanced at each other, as if communicating, before they looked at Jamie. He nodded once, and a number of the wolves stripped out of their shirts.
They swaddled every inch of skin on the man, then easily hauled him upright, none to gently tossing him over a shoulder, and the group began to jog back toward the house.
When she moved to follow, Durant kept pace at her side, carrying Taggert’s extra weight with ease. She tore her eyes away from the tempting sight, her mind scrambling to find a safe topic.
“I thought the Cadre had called the hunt off.” She frowned after the wolves carrying the Master. “But he was clearly intent on killing me.”
A steady rumble emerged from Durant’s chest, and the green circling his eyes faded as the gold returned. “They either didn’t get the message or…”
“They don’t care.” She finished his grim thought when he couldn’t complete his sentence.
Randolph appeared at her side, and she barely repressed a yelp, having expected him to disappear. “You stayed.”
“You always find the most interesting trouble.” He normally sounded gleeful about the fact. Not this time. Now he just seemed pissed. Someone had succeeded in finding a chink in his armor, and he wasn’t going to be happy until he eliminated the threat.
Electric series- Raven Investigations BoxSet Page 71
