She instinctively took a step back.
He’d sacrificed himself for her and wouldn’t forgive her if she stayed. She needed to be free so she could rescue them.
With one last look, Raven took off running.
She heard grunting and chanced a glance behind her in time to see Taggert tackle the two men who’d given chase. He fought dirty, taking the men down long enough for her to gain ground. Running full speed, she focused on escape.
A small shape straightened from behind a car, leaping over the vehicle in a single bound, landing directly into her path. The thrill of the chase had stripped the werewolf of what little humanity he had left. There was no reasoning behind his eyes, pure predator staring back at her.
Raven tensed as he raised a gun but didn’t slow down. A little puff from the barrel alerted her first, and she barely managed to swerve in time. The dart winged her arm.
Her muscles burned as the chemicals sped through her body.
Then Raven bent low, hitting the man in the gut with enough force that they both went flying. She slammed into the ground with a grunt, while the man thumped into a car with a heavy thud. The impact knocked the breath from her lungs. Air became scarce as she grabbed the fender of the car and dragged herself upright.
A shadow fell across her, and she peered up into a barrel of a gun. Without hesitation, the man fired twice.
A sharp jab of pain slammed into her upper shoulder as if she’d been stabbed.
More poison flooded her system.
Raven refused to go down without a fight, kicking out, pleased when she heard the bones of his knees crunch as it bent backward.
The man bellowed, the sounds not remotely human, as if he no longer had vocal cords. His face was misshapen, not wolf or human but caught in between. With his mouth open, his fangs appeared more prominent. When their eyes connected, anger burned in their depths, and he struck her across the face with the side of the gun.
Pain exploded in her head, and she allowed herself to collapse. She wanted to keep fighting, she could take them, but it was important for them to believe she was human.
The werebeast threaded his hand in her hair and viciously yanked her head back. Her neck strained at the awkward angle, and she struggled to breathe. Muscles corded his arms, but instead of covered in fur, the beast had a leopard pattern etched over his skin.
“Do not damage her or they’ll take it out of your hide.” The soldier strolled into view, calmly watching her get her ass handed to her, a satisfied twist to his lips.
The leopardman grunted in disappointment and released her.
Raven collapsed forward, gulping for air, her head growing fuzzy. A few feet from her, she stared at the glassy-eyed stuffed animal Taggert had given her, the little thing trampled in the dirt.
Two men dragged Taggert’s limp body between them, and her chest hurt to see him so vulnerable. Even flooded with poison, the magic and her dragon helped burn through the worst of it. She should escape as Taggert had ordered her, but instinct warned that if they didn’t capture her, her pack would be worthless to them.
Expendable.
She couldn’t leave them to die.
Someone grabbed her arm and hauled her upright before thrusting a boney shoulder in her middle and hoisting her high. It took everything she had to remain pliant. Even with the dragon firmly hidden, claws pressed against her fingerprints, and she resisted the need to shred the man to ribbons. The man carrying her had a heavy limp, and pleasure spiraled through her knowing she’d at least maimed him. Shifters healed fast, but he could look forward to a week of agony and think of her with every step.
Lights and noises from the circus rose as they drew closer. “Put them in the cages.”
Canvas rippled, and she realized they’d been escorted through the back entrance. The man carrying her stopped, and she fought against the urge to tense. The man lifted her, then she went airborne as he tossed her. She bit her lip to hold back a squeal. She hit the cage with a thunk, before crashing to the cold metal floor.
Agony rippled through her. Her ribs felt bruised, her knee throbbed. Her head swam as she struggled to remain conscious.
The world went black for a few seconds when she heard a roar.
Durant.
Alive.
She lifted her head, feeling woozy as something dripped down her face. She lifted her hand and encountered a nasty gash at her temple. She stared in confusion at the blood staining her fingers. She struggled to stand, but her legs wouldn’t hold her. Vision blurry, she peered beyond the bars of her cage to see Durant pacing in his tiger form, fully agitated and ready to rip into anything that neared.
Taggert lay slumped across from her, completely unresponsive, sweating out the toxins as fast as he could while Jackson was swaddled in chains that had to weigh a couple hundred pounds, his body tensed to explode into action at any second.
Though they were all captured, she sensed no injuries. They must have been taken by a blitz attack, caught off guard and shot with darts from a distance. They wouldn’t have allowed themselves to be taken without a fight.
She castigated herself for not knowing they were in trouble.
Some protector she was turning out to be.
Raven struggled to remain human as her magic rose with her agitation, threatening to expose her. Their captors thought the men were the bigger threat.
They were very wrong.
Jackson didn’t take his gaze away from her, muscles straining as he tried to break the chains. He must have seen her look, the one that craved vengeance, and slowly shook his head.
Annoyance rippled through her at being forced to back down even if he was right. Without her dragon or power to back her up, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to take them without putting her pack more at risk.
They needed to wait until the drugs burned out of their systems first.
The cage slammed shut in her face with a resounding thud.
Her heart dropped to her feet with a splat.
A prisoner again.
Trapped.
She repressed the growl that threatened. She had to remain calm or risk harming her men if she lost control. She wanted to unleash all the pent up rage on the circus and obliterate it. She could overload the shifters with energy and force them to change. Though they would be more dangerous in beast form, it would also suppress their human side for a few precious minutes. The bindings to the pack would waiver and chaos would reign.
Her dragon could grab control, but there was a vital flaw to the plan. If her dragon failed to rise, her people would be torn apart. She could do the opposite and drop everyone where they stood but the sudden influx of syphoning away all their energy could knock her out cold.
She couldn’t risk that they would recover first.
She’d bide her time for now, but the instant they moved against one of hers, they were all dead.
Chapter Eight – Day 2
DAY TWO: FIRST DAY OF CAPTIVITY – MORNING
Raven kept watch over the men all night, determined nothing worse would happen to them. No one spoke, not with the guard standing outside the small tent. The cages were tall enough for them to sit and long enough for them to lay down if they curled up their legs. Though the men were crammed into the miniscule space, they’d settled down, not quite sleeping as they burned off the rest of the drugs.
Paranoia kept her awake, and she’d spent all last night gathering as much information as she could. She pushed tiny strands of energy through the earth, holding back as much as possible so the shifters wouldn’t sense the sudden influx. Current forked through the ground, registering anything with a heartbeat. She did it over and over until she worked her way through the whole circus, her hands trembling under the strain by the time she was done. Her spirits plummeted at the sheer number of people. By her estimation, the circus housed over fifty workers, a third of them some variety of shifter.
That left dozens of humans, more than half of them soldiers.
Some of the shifters had tried to help them last night, but she couldn’t count them as allies, not if it meant going against their pack.
The side of her face ached from the blow she’d taken, but the gash on her temple had scabbed over. Temperatures had dropped throughout the night, the metal cage offering little comfort. Dew glistened on the grass. Dawn colored the horizon through the thin canvas, a smudge of red in the sky, when the tent flap flew open.
The ringmaster entered, and Raven blinked in surprise as she spotted his animal form wrapped around him like cloak. The man was an honest to god bull, sharpened horns and all, not to mention damned near a ton in weight. He didn’t speak as he trotted through the tent, observing each cage for a few minutes like a proud owner admiring his newest acquisitions before halting in front of her.
Without a shred of doubt, she knew her suspicions were true.
They replenished their ranks by kidnapping people, and her pack were the newest recruits.
Calculating thoughts flickering behind the dark pits of his eyes, and her hands clenched around the bars until her knuckles ached. Raven concentrated on blocking as much of her magic and beast as she could. She must have passed for human for he turned away. Relief trickled in her veins, the tension releasing its stranglehold on her body.
Her secrets remained safe.
Now she just had to keep it that way.
She needed to think human.
How the hell was she supposed to do that when she’s never been human?
The few humans that she’d met when growing up had all either experimented or tortured her.
Fun times.
“Imagine my surprise when we stumbled upon these two skulking behind the circus. We offered our hospitality while they waited for your return.” Their scent. Raven cursed her carelessness, sick to her stomach. The people from the circus must have searched the cars until they’d located their scent and found Durant and Jackson waiting like sitting ducks.
While Taggert and she were playing hide-and-seek, they’d been hunting her men.
The ringmaster walked around the cages in a proprietary way, remaining just out of swatting distance. She didn’t like the possessive way he studied the three men, judging their worth like he already owned them and could do whatever he pleased.
“You make it sound like we set a trap for you.” More the other way around. Rage seethed under her skin, and she was proud her voice didn’t shake with her volatile emotions. Raven leaned back as casually as possible until her spine hit the cage, refusing to be intimidated, keeping him in view as he continued to clomp through the tent. “What do you want?”
She wanted it spelled out. She wanted to know exactly where they stood.
His brows rose, as if surprised that she would speak for the group.
Then a satisfied look settled on his face.
“My name is Clancy, the ringmaster here. You all have been given the honor of being chosen to join my pack.” He paused as if he expected some sign of appreciation. When no one even moved, a frown furrowed between his brows at the slight. “You will be expected to work for your food and board. You’ll be given a one-week trial, so you’ll want to make sure you pass inspection.”
A slight smirk danced about his lips, but it was the malicious gleam in his eyes that made it clear that if they failed to pledge allegiance, they would not enjoy the consequences. Then he nodded toward her. “For your own safety, you will be separated from the shifters and housed with the other women. If you obey the rules and earn your keep, you’ll be granted the privilege of a few minutes alone with each other at meal times.”
Giving them a taste of what they were missing, a nasty reminder of what they had to lose if they didn’t behave. Everything inside her rebelled at being separated from her men. Fury scorched her insides raw at being used as a damned hostage, and she quickly reined it back before it could leak pass her shields. If she hadn’t been in a damned cage, she would’ve leapt at him.
“And if we don’t obey?”
The man cocked a brow at her, clearly not impressed. “If you don’t earn your keep, then I have no use for you.” He gestured with two fingers, signaling to a man hidden outside her range of sight.
The man who entered the tent next appeared no more than thirty years old, but age could be deceiving when shifters lived a few centuries. Definitely a shifter from the energy roiling under the surface, but he had himself locked down so hard, she couldn’t tell which breed. Muscles roped his body, not a speck of fat on him. Trimmed dark hair and plain nondescript clothes allowed him to pass as forgettable.
Until she saw his eyes.
Guarded.
Ruthless.
No mercy.
There would be no help from that quarter.
“Touch her, and you die.” Taggert threw himself at the cage, nearly upending it. Durant swung out with a massive paw, and the man easily danced out of the way. Jackson worried her the most. He did nothing but watched, his eyes cold and deadly.
At the first opportunity, the man would be dead.
“Ah, Greggory, see to the human. She can stay with Veronica until they take their pledge.”
Greggory stiffened slightly, then held his hand out, waiting for Clancy to remove the key from around his neck and hand it over. Without missing a beat, he opened the lock and straightened. She waited for him to grab her and drag her out, but all he did was stand patiently by the door. Giving her the opportunity to run or prove herself or just plain manners, she wasn’t sure which. For now, she’d play with the hand she was dealt.
In order to convince them that she was human, Raven hadn’t allowed herself to heal.
Now she paid the price.
When she pulled herself toward the opening, her ribs creaked in protest. Every movement, every breath sent agony rippling through her body as she struggled to stand and walk. They almost reached the door when the ringmaster spoke again.
“Since you’re such an animal lover, you can work with the beasts.”
Grunt work, not that Raven cared.
They considered her human and therefore worthless.
Good.
That meant they wouldn’t see her coming.
* * *
Her escort didn’t talk or touch her as they wove their way through the fairgrounds. They slipped through a small section in the canvas, more of a cut than an opening, and entered a maze of trailers and tents.
A tiny village where the workers lived.
People stopped as they passed. Some smirked, while others dropped their eyes, pity leaching them of all emotions. One trailer stood off to the side, bigger than the others, and her guard pounded on the door.
It opened to reveal the last person she expected.
The mermaid.
She filled the doorway, but not the woman Raven had seen last night. Oh, the tail had morphed into legs, but it was more than that. Instead of a young woman, she had aged a good ten years overnight. The glorious fine blond hair now looked limp and oily. The flawless skin had drooped, covering her in a layer of fine wrinkles, taking her from a beautiful princess to a middle-aged crone in a matter of hours.
Shifter aged slowly, but they can’t function at their peak so far out of their natural habitat. Without water, this woman would die a brutally slow death. She aged so fast, Raven could actually smell the death around her.
“The little human. You didn’t make it.”
Raven shivered at the purr in the voice. The sound should’ve been seductive, but the woman rubbed her the wrong way.
“Clancy wants her to stay with you for the first week, show her the ropes. She’s the new animal trainer.” The man gave nothing away as he issued his instructions. “She’s human. Make sure you handle her with care.”
A moue of disgust crossed the woman’s face, and she lowered her eyes demurely. “He promised me my own trailer.”
“Take that up with him.” The man turned and walked away, abandoning Raven without another word. Some shifters rese
nted humans, treating them as a pest to be dealt with when they couldn’t avoid it. As she watched his lean form disappear into the crowd, she realized he saw her as nothing more than a chore.
The woman heaved a sigh and pushed the trailer door wider. “You might as well come in, but don’t bother making yourself at home.”
Veronica flounced away, the nightgown she wore flaring out in her agitation. It appeared more than a hundred years old, something a woman might wear in the Victorian age. She lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, nervously flicking her nails. She parted the window curtain and peered outside.
“It might look like your guard walked away, but everyone will be watching you. You have to be careful. Few of us are human. The longer you remain, the more dangerous it will become. You have to prove your worth. The instant you mess up, they’ll pounce.”
She turned away from the window, puffing on her cigarette, the confined space filling with the stench of smoke. Raven unobtrusively covered her nose, but nothing would block the invasive smell.
“Sorry.” The woman stabbed out her cigarette, the ashtray filled with a dozen or so half-smoked butts. She waved a hand then picked up a can and sprayed the air.
It only made things worse.
Now Raven smelled smoke and a heathy dose of sickly-sweet flowers on top of it. With a shifters enhanced sense of smell, smoking should’ve been intolerable. The lack of sleep combined with the smoke left her head pounding and the bruises on her face throbbed.
“Here, let me change, and I’ll show you the job.” Veronica dropped the robe and threw it across the bed, quickly dressing in a simple pullover gown. In under a minute, they were out the door.
Raven gulped fresh air, feeling a bit green, swallowing compulsively so as not to be sick. They travelled through the maze of tents and trailers, people edging out of their way, avoiding looking at them directly, something usually they only reserved for alphas, and everything inside her froze.
Her heart thudded painfully against her ribs.
Raven Investigation 04 - Electric Legend Page 7
