DEEP CURRENT
TOTEM #6
Christine Rains
Deep Current (Totem #6)
Christine Rains | Copyright 2017
Kindle Edition
All rights reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events, or occurrences is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Tagline: Always read the fine print when making a bargain with a sea hag.
Summary: Lost to the clutches of her grief of losing her mentor, Saskia Dorn welcomes the opportunity to take down a warehouse of drug dealers. When their leader makes a break for it, Saskia and her ex-boyfriend, Sedge, chase the criminal shifter into the sea off the coast of northwestern Alaska. Not only do they lose their quarry, but a vicious sea hag snatches Sedge.
Saskia can’t take another loss and attempts to bargain for Sedge’s life and the salmon totem the witch has trapped in her cave. The sea hag wants only one thing: her long lost love. Who is dead. And living under the freaking ocean with the Salmon People. Find the Salmon People and return with the witch’s love before Sedge’s life is forfeit. Simple, right? Yet she can’t leave the Salmon People’s land without finding herself first.
Cover design: Christine Rains
All photos came from BigStock. Saskia model – Photographer: Maksim Toome. Background – Photographer: Andreas Altenburger. Frost – Photographer: Rafinade. Salmon art – Artist: Andrey Burmakin.
To receive information about new releases, cover reveals, and exclusive content, sign up for her newsletter.
To Brandon,
may you always find the strength to face
what frightens you the most and live to tell
the tale.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Totem Series
Where to Find Christine Rains Online
Other Works by Christine Rains
Untethered Realms
Acknowledgments
About the Author
The totem tokens could wait. All Saskia wanted to do today was kick some ass.
While her family, Sedge, and she had been relentlessly hunting tokens since late summer, a totem didn’t bring them here. Being a Black Shaman had its own responsibilities. Just because their world might soon end, they couldn’t ignore their duties. When a shifter went bad, like the murdering bastard they’d tracked here, Black Shamans acted as judge, jury, and, if need be, executioner. Unfortunately, more often than not, the latter was needed.
The mid-November wind bit at Saskia’s chin and nose, but her snugly fit tuque kept her long hair out of her eyes. Puffs of her breath zipped away as quickly as they appeared. Her nostrils quivered, sniffing the air. No dogs around to alert anyone of Sedge and her arrival at the dilapidated cannery. Just fish, stinking with rot.
Fish and people inside the two-story building. Likely with knives. And guns.
This was going to be fun.
Saskia glanced over her shoulder at the town of Kotzebue behind her. Street lights shone even though it was four in the afternoon. Darkness came sooner each day as if the sun itself readied for hibernation.
Smart sun. It didn’t want to see what would happen to shifters everywhere if the lost totem tokens weren’t found. Not that she was going to let that happen.
Snow crunched underfoot as she strode beside Sedge. His dark gaze remained focused on the battered brick building. The elements hadn’t been kind to it, but nothing remained standing in Alaska unless it was built with strength. With no fences or barriers to take the brunt of the freezing ocean wind, the cannery walls glistened with ice.
Tension hardened Sedge’s square jaw and drew his lips into a thin line. No hat covered his short shorn white blond hair. Not that the cold bothered him. As the latest incarnation of the ancient Inuit Bear god, blustery days like this rejuvenated him.
Ten feet from the crooked wooden door and neither of them had said a word. Saskia’s heart quickened. Would there be a fight or would the shifter criminal they sought surrender? She hoped it would be a fight. She needed it to be a fight. The churning bitter weight she carried in her gut swirled, ready to explode.
Voices and clanking from inside carried to her ears. Busy for a place which had supposedly shut down a decade ago. Of course, they weren’t shipping fish from here anymore no matter how it looked with the bins of herring on the outside.
The door wasn’t bolted or chained. A rusty latch barely kept it from blowing open.
Without missing a step, Sedge kicked in the door and knocked it off its worn hinges. It banged onto the cement floor, and every head turned toward him.
“Nattiq!” Sedge bellowed, calling for the shifter who was in charge of the drug dealing operation.
Open as the place was, it reeked of fish guts. Years of chopping fish had left pale blood stains on the cement. Rust clung to steel tables and machinery, and rotted wood gleamed black with mold. Over a dozen people clad in aprons and latex gloves gaped. And on top of the tables sat Nattiq’s product of choice: heroin.
White powder in big baggies, in tiny bags, in small rocks, in big blocks, and in piles on trays, scales, and filthy tables. Wind danced in through the door and picked up the finely cut heroin, which swirled around like fresh snow.
The shifter they sought, Nattiq, didn’t reply. And why would he? If he didn’t know about the Black Shamans, then he’d know two polar bear shifters had walked through his door. That would give cause for anyone to run.
None of the shocked people took off, though. Humans, every single one.
It didn’t make them any less dangerous. Saskia had no pity for them. Her aching insides called for one thing. She smiled as she marched to one worker’s table and flipped it over.
Come on. Fucking fight.
The humans shouted their protests and cursed her as they pulled out their weapons. Several pistols and a few knives. None of them stopped to think how a woman could so easily push over a four hundred pound table. Nor did they run when Sedge picked up a second table, smashed a man’s nose with the edge, and lifted it over his head.
Clad all in white, Sedge seemed like an avenging angel with the sexy body of an incubus. Not once in the past few months had Saskia tired of watching him fight, and they’d had plenty of opportunities to do so. She’d taken on the punishment of two tribesmen from a small village, and Sedge commanded she return to the ranks of the Black Shamans and declared himself her mentor. Where he went, she went.
The first round of gunshots shook the walls of the cannery. Sedge lowered the table to act as a shield as he advanced on the gunmen near the rear of the cannery.
A man brandishing a hunting knife stole Saskia’s attention. He lunged at her with a twisted smirk on his lips. A second guy in a long coat ran around the overturned table w
ith an equally pitiful blade.
Really? Two men with little knives. Where was the challenge in that?
Saskia dodged to one side and swung her fist, busting the man’s jaw. The crunch of bone drowned under his cry. She twisted and kicked the other guy in the gut. He stumbled back, but didn’t fall over like his whimpering buddy.
Good. She needed this fight.
The long coat guy slashed his blade through the air and backed away from another one of her kicks. Saskia darted forward, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it so he dropped his knife. He hit her in the face with his free hand.
She licked her lips and tasted blood. The brief spike of pain further inflamed her desire for battle. The physical hurts she could handle. The grief in her heart and fury in her belly eluded her attempts to contain them. Only moments like this gave her an outlet to release them.
After backhanding the guy, she threw him to the ground and stomped on his shoulder to dislocate his arm. He screamed and writhed.
Yelling, shooting, smashing. She didn’t turn her head to look Sedge’s way as she twisted the man’s arm. Sedge could handle himself.
A line of fire scratched her right bicep as a bullet splintered the post behind her. Coming out of a back room, two men with handguns hurried toward her. Was that a warning shot or did they miss their target?
Fear, like a burning swig of pure vodka, tightened her chest. They could so easily kill her. Kill Sedge.
Swallowing that fiery ball of dread, Saskia forced herself back into motion. She kicked the long coat guy in the face to knock him unconscious. He went silent as the pair of gunmen shouted at her to put her hands on her head and get down on her knees. First in English and then in Russian. Bad Russian too.
Now this was more like it.
She lifted her hands in slow motion and started to lower herself to the ground. One jerk scurried forward, his face hard but his eyes appraising.
Yes, she was a woman. Tall, blonde, and leggy. Let him make some lewd comment. She’d enjoy smashing his teeth and slicing his tongue.
Idiots like them always underestimated women. Certainly they saw Sedge on the warpath on the other side of the warehouse. He had the muscle, the fighting skills, the dangerous edge. None ever expected her to be equal to Sedge.
The second the gunman laid his hand on her arm, Saskia grabbed the wrist of the hand that held the gun and rammed her elbow into his face before yanking him against her to use as a shield. His body shuddered and sagged as his companion emptied his pistol into him.
Saskia dropped the dead man and dove for the shooter. Snarling, she wrestled him for the weapon.
Oh, the look on his face when he felt her strength. Then the realization of what she must be.
He swore and attempted to wiggle free from her hold. Flight had won out against fight in him. How wise of him. How little too late.
She didn’t shift. It didn’t give her the same release as fighting in her human form. She grunted as she punched him in the stomach and headbutted him, busting his nose. It gushed bright blood, wetting her appetite to dole out further punishment.
Gripping his jacket, she held him at arm’s length and hit him in the face. Once, twice, three times.
Why was no one else shooting at her? No guns were being fired at all.
If this was all the security Nattiq had at his drug depot, he was sadly lacking. And where was the stinking bastard?
Saskia punched the guy another half dozen times. He wasn’t able to stand on his own anymore, but somehow, he clung to consciousness.
“Where is Nattiq?” She demanded, shaking her captive. She’d get answers and find the shifter criminal. This was a hunt she refused to lose.
She slammed the beaten man against a steel post. “Where is he?”
His head lulled to the side as she banged him against it again. When his eyes rolled back, she shook him harder. She was a Black Shaman trained by two of the best there ever had been. She’d get her target.
She couldn’t fail at this. Not like she missed out on the fox totem. Every shifter in the world depended on her being able to find those tokens. And she didn’t have one. Sedge didn’t have one. It was wrong. All wrong.
“Where?” Saskia screeched and spun around with a wild swing when someone put a hand on her shoulder. The bloody gunman fell to the floor.
Sedge caught her fist and held her still. His tone was hard yet quiet. “Saskia. He’s not here.”
Not a speck of blood marred his pristine clothes. Nor was there a bead of sweat on his brow.
Adrenaline still rushed through her veins as she panted. Her body quivered with the desire to either hit him or kiss him. She pulled out of his grip and wiped her black coat. Blood and heroin. Not the best look.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find him.” Sedge fingered the hole in her coat where the bullet had passed through. His finger skimmed over her skin and let go only when he was assured she’d already healed.
“And kill him.” Saskia flexed her fingers, waiting for the ache to vanish from her knuckles. Her arm tingled where he’d touched it. How easily he could make her forget herself.
Sedge nodded and gestured to her. “Do you need a moment or are you ready to search the place?”
She wasn’t going to stop. She couldn’t. If Nattiq was in the building, they’d find him. And if he wasn’t there, they’d find him elsewhere.
Before she could answer where he could stick that moment, a seal barked from the dockside door.
Saskia’s adrenaline spiked again, and she moved a fraction of a second faster than Sedge. She ran and skidded to a stop by the dock door. Another bark sounded from the other side. Louder this time.
This was it. Nattiq was a seal shifter.
Sedge stopped in front of the lift door and motioned for her to hit the button to open it. Saskia slapped her hand against the red button and stepped back to the side. It might just be Nattiq on the dock, or he might have friends. It was difficult to smell anything over the blood, fish, and heroin.
The door rose too slowly. Each squeak and click made Saskia twitch. Anticipation could be a son of a bitch.
It would be a shock for Nattiq to see two Black Shamans coming for him, but to add to the equation Sedge and she were polar bears too. Nattiq might shit himself and drop dead of fright right there on the dock.
She was more than ready to kill this bastard, to deliver justice for the people he murdered. They gained enough evidence from witnesses to know that Nattiq ran his drug empire from the cannery. Kotzebue was a key northwestern port in Alaska. It acted as a hub for several small villages inland, and Russian boats docked to deliver goods to be flown throughout the state. Nattiq couldn’t have picked a more perfect place.
How Nattiq was getting his drugs past the Coast Guard was another question. Even the Kotzebue police hadn’t moved to stop the operation. Likely they were paid or threatened to stay out of it.
After today, no one would have to worry about Nattiq anymore.
The seal scooted forward toward the opening door and barked with what sounded like eagerness. Small and spotty, it acted like a dog happy to see its master.
Sedge darted out with a growl when the door was open halfway, and Saskia followed. The seal squealed and took off toward the edge of the dock. There wasn’t enough ice to give it speed, and Sedge grabbed it by the tail before it got six feet.
The animal cried out again, fighting for its life. Sedge pinned the squirming seal to the ground and frowned. “It’s not Nattiq.”
That much was obvious at this point, but there was something odd attached to the seal. Saskia gritted her teeth as the dock door came to a screeching stop. “What’s that on its neck?”
“A tracking collar?” Sedge grunted as the animal tried to bite him. “Pull it off.”
Almost getting herself bitten, Saskia bent and reached toward the object. She smacked the seal on its nose. “Calm down. We’re not going to eat you. Let me have this thing.”
Sedge forced the seal�
��s head down as Saskia undid the buckle and lifted the thing off. Not a collar. More like a pack. She unzipped it and shook her head at what she found inside. “Drugs. This is how he’s getting it past the Coast Guard. Shit. Not only is Nattiq killing his competition, but he’s using local wildlife as his mules.”
Saskia despised Nattiq before, but now her loathing deepened. No wonder he was raking in the money. He probably paid his seals in fish. She flung the opened pack into the sea.
“Are we really not going to eat it?” Sedge’s voice rumbled, and the spotted seal went still under him as if understanding its dire circumstances.
Polar bears favored seals as meals. If they’d been out hunting as bears, it might be one thing, but the poor beast had been through enough. It was barely an adult too. “Let it go.” And when he hesitated, she threw her hands in the air and turned to storm back into the cannery. “Do whatever the fuck you want.”
A few of the injured men groaned from where they lay on the floor. It wasn’t the Black Shamans’ place to punish humans unless they were harming shifters. These assholes worked for one, but the police could take care of this mess.
Later. After Nattiq was caught. But that meant tying up all these guys or locking them up somewhere so they wouldn’t get away or tell their boss. There was likely a freezer or two somewhere in the building.
She walked to where she had left the last man she’d hit. Repeatedly. It made her stomach churn a little. He might need a doctor.
“It’s not like you,” Sedge said as he entered the cannery and came to stand beside her.
“What do you mean? It’s not like me to not want to eat the seal?” Saskia scoffed, folded her arms, dropped them, and folded them again. “Or was it not like me to not argue with you about it? Would you have preferred I pleaded with you to spare its life? I know better than to try to tell you to do anything. You’ll do what you want to do.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He gestured to the unconscious man. “That’s not like you.”
Though Sedge stood half a foot apart from her, she suddenly felt as if he were too close. She turned from him and went to pick up the human under his shoulders. “I was trying to get answers, and the guy wasn’t talking.”
Deep Current (Totem Book 6) Page 1
