Shifters were stronger and faster, pack members trained to fight at birth.
To say they were born weapons wouldn’t be an understatement.
If she trained hard enough, learned to fight, muscle memory would take over in battle. As the dragon became further integrated, so would her strength and speed. It wouldn’t replace years of practice, but it could keep her alive.
After an hour, her bruised muscles burned as they began to heal. The stifling air left her skin slick, her shirt sticking to her back, and the only sound in the room her harsh breathing. Light shone into the trailer from the one window. Something about it appeared brighter than normal, sparkling like a diamond in the darkness, and she peered upward.
The dragon surged forward, and her senses swam into focus. Images became sharper.
And her breath caught.
High on the Ferris wheel Taggert climbed the metal cage and cables like a god-be-damned monkey, no fear or hesitation in his smooth movements. Her breath hiccupped in her chest as he leapt from one bar to the next, closing the five-foot gap with a flex of muscles and no concern for his safety. He stopped at a tiny black box, opened it and tinkered with something inside. Less than a minute later, the large wheel began to spin.
Pulse thundering in her ears, she watched as Taggert leaned over, grabbed the bar, and slid down the metal, much too fast for her heart to take.
Just before he reached the cart, he leapt, spun through the air and disappeared from sight. Raven launched to her feet to see more, but he’d vanished.
Raven closed her eyes, the air vanishing from her lungs. Without a second hesitation, she dropped into the pure energy that made up her bones. The dragon rumbled in protest, tugging the power back, trying to prevent her from doing anything rash.
Raven shoved back.
She needed to know Taggert had survived.
The dragon bared its many sharp teeth and swatted her like a fly, her giant claw pinning her down.
Raven dropped to her knees, the energy fizzling as common sense returned. She couldn’t run off half-cocked. Taggert was alive or she would’ve felt the reverberations through the pack. She closed her eyes, purposely didn’t touch her power, but scanned the lines connecting her to the pack. Three lines were pure bright blue, no hint of magical taint … Taggert, Durant and Jackson. Another rippled off into the distance, a little dimmer than the others. She reached out, her hand hovering over the current and a rich spice filled her mind.
Rylan.
A vampire.
It should be impossible to physically claim him. They were a different species.
But Raven was eternally grateful, pleasure thrumming under her skin as she discovered the forbidden tie.
She carefully withdrew, not wanting to draw him into danger. Half a dozen other lines appeared, so faded they resembled phantom ribbons—the rest of the people she’d unofficially claimed. They weren’t as strong as pack bonds, weaker without the blood oath.
She’d never seen anything like it.
Fascinated by the discovery, she traced the lines to the source, and couldn’t have been more surprised to encounter her dragon.
Talons tightened on the cords as if afraid she would sever them, such possessiveness in the hold that she knew they would both die before the creature would release its hold. It might not be legal in the eyes of the shifters, but it was good enough for both of them. Raven waited for the rush of blind panic at being tied to so many people, but instead, a knot of tension she’d been holding onto for years began to unravel.
The dragon allowed her to be around others without the fear of killing them. Between the two of them, her pack would remain safe.
That was if they managed to survive this little escapade.
Taggert was taking too many chances, his control shaky at best. Shifters needed touch other pack members to keep them grounded … keep them human. To be denied was considered drastic punishment. She needed to touch Taggert to see if she could calm him before he lost control completely.
Opening her eyes, she studied the door, listening for any movement beyond it.
Nothing.
No breathing, no scuffling of feet or brush of clothing.
Climbing to her feet, she crept toward the door, and slowly turned the knob.
The door sprang open as if she’d kicked it. Raven lunged forward and grabbed the knob, clenching in horror as she overbalanced and tumbled outside. She stumbled but landed on her feet.
The darkness seemed denser, more dangerous.
She took a few hesitant steps, surprised when no one raised an alarm.
They hadn’t even bothered to lock the door.
They relied so much on obedience, they never thought a puny human would defy them, and hadn’t bothered with a jailor to enforce their rule.
Only a sheet of canvas separated her from the circus, and she found the opening on the second try, the trampled path barely discernable in the dark. She kept to the fringes, staying away from the workers ambling along like wolves prowling amongst the sheep, and headed toward the Ferris wheel.
The last spot she’d seen Taggert.
He tensed, sensing her long before he saw her, always aware of her presence when she was near. It both baffled her and left her leery, hating that he was so cognizant of her every movement. Her stupid heart didn’t care, thumping against her ribs in pleasure at the attention. Taggert dropped his tools and edged his way through the crowd toward her like a shark cutting through water. People scrambled out of his way. Without saying a word, he grabbed her arm and dragged her into a large tent.
The place was packed, over a hundred people crowded in the bench seats, their attention riveted on the show. Taggert didn’t allow her to linger, dragging her out of the way of prying eyes, dropping her arm only when they were concealed under the bleachers. With so many people cramped in the small place, no shifter would be able to pick out her scent unless they were looking for her specifically, and maybe not even then.
Only the bottoms of people’s legs were visible, the ripe stench of their feet so intense she almost gagged. The tightening around Taggert’s eyes said he noticed it, too. Even with the ability to sort smells, she imagined the intensity had to be much worse for him. His special ability was tracking, able to pick up the smallest scents. Since he couldn’t shift, he’d adapted for survival.
The perfect evolution.
What would take humans generations of mutations took them a single lifetime.
Dirt kicked up each time her foot landed. Taggert was more graceful, his feet barely disturbing the surface as he walked. Wrappers littered the floor, toppled plastic cups, and more than a few gobs of chewed gum. They stopped only when they had a clear view of the center of the tent.
Taggert stared at her, his expression growing darker as his patience snapped. “Why put yourself in danger by leaving the trailer? It’s a stupid risk. If you’re caught, they’ll punish you.”
Raven ignored his question, fury burning through her. “I saw you climb that wheel. What the hell were you thinking by risking your life like that?”
Taggert’s brows rose in confusion before his face softened. “You were worried about me.”
The back of her throat ached at the marvel in his voice over something as simple as someone caring about him. She wanted to smack him. “Of course I worry.”
“I was never in any danger. The fall wouldn’t have killed me.”
He might have a point, but it nearly gave her a heart attack to see him suspended in the air with no thought to his safety. “It might not kill you, but you wouldn’t have escaped unscathed, either.”
His expression smoothed out, ever impassive, and her heart lurched at the way he shielded himself away from her as he had when they first met. Hiding himself from her as if he thought she might hurt him. His reaction devastated her. “Taggert—”
“You put yourself in danger without a second’s hesitation almost every day. How is that different?”
Raven huffed
, but didn’t have any answers, none that didn’t make her sound hypocritical. A cheer rose from the crowd, the aroma of sweat and fear, awe and anxiety, a toxic and addicting combination.
She twisted until she could see what held everyone so captivated. A set of six dancers stood in the center of the ring, their movements so in tandem they couldn’t be human. They tumbled through the air, balanced on hands and feet in impossible displays of strength. Women dressed in see-through scarves, shimmering in a way only professional belly dancers could duplicate, wove around the men. “What’s happening?”
“They run this show twice a night.” He came to stand next to her, not stopping until his arm brushed against hers.
“It’s too much to see all at once.” Her eyes couldn’t take in everything all at once. At the other end of the ring, a man threw small machetes at a woman tied to a spinning wheel. Another man walked around blowing five-foot flames over the crowd, then swallowing the fire. She somehow doubted the man had a talent for it by the way he winced, his smile more of a grimace of teeth, but shifters could heal even from the most severe injuries.
Taggert nodded. “That’s the point. They have a couple of acts at the same time to keep people distracted. It leaves them with a bit of mystery, keeps the humans from observing them too closely. Right now, it’s all fun and games, but the instant they see what we can really do, the enjoyment can morph into fear.”
As all the acts cleared the ring, a big bear of a man strode to the center toward the smallest car ever built, the roof standing no taller than her waist. She counted at least five people packed inside the vehicle. She couldn’t help but wonder if they had to break bones to make themselves all fit.
Calm as can be, the man stooped and picked up the rear of the car and pushed it out of the ring. Nothing said ‘not human’ more than pushing a thousand pounds of metal and flesh round without breaking into a sweat.
The ringmaster entered the ring, and the crowd cheered. “You’ve been waiting for this all night. I must warn you, this next act is dangerous, and very few people have seen anything like it. Don’t make any sudden moves or draw attention to yourself in any way, or I can’t guarantee your safety. Those faint of heart should leave now.”
No one so much as twitched.
Tension crept up her neck, a deep foreboding darkening the edges of her vision.
“Don’t.” Only when Taggert spoke and grabbed her arm did Raven become aware that she’d been shuffling closer.
She didn’t know if she wanted to see better or try to put a stop to what was going to happen.
“I present you with The Wild Wolf of the Great North.”
People cheered and a man with a bullwhip entered the small area. The leather strap twisted through the air like a living thing, graceful and smooth, hypnotizing with its movements. With a twist of his wrist, the sharp snap of the whip made her jump.
A wooden sign on the pole cracked in two and clattered to the ground.
The crowd gasped and clapped their appreciation. Raven remained frozen, apprehension dropping onto her like a ton of bricks when Jackson entered the ring next wearing nothing but a pair of sweat pants. Tan muscles gleamed in the spotlight, not an ounce of fat anywhere on his body. He didn’t strut about, didn’t flash his body. There was no need. Even standing still, he exuded power, a living, breathing work of art.
Hers.
Then the truth of what he was doing there shriveled her soul.
Shifting was a private thing. To be forced to do it in public was a huge invasion of privacy. It stole something from them, a violation that left them feeling exposed and vulnerable.
Her throat ached with the need to roar her outrage. Energy rose until it crackled under her skin. It would only take a little push to suck all the electricity from the circus and shut it down permanently. The dragon stretched under her skin, wanting freedom.
Taggert inched in front of her, his eyes only for her. “You have to tone it down.”
Rage seethed around her like an invisible wind, offering comfort and the will to do her bidding, and she nearly buckled under the temptation. “And if I refuse?”
A gust of air tugged at the canvas tent. Dirt and debris danced around the floor like little tornados.
“If you don’t pull back, you’ll kill everyone here.”
Raven didn’t care, not seeing that as such a bad thing. They deserved anything that happened to them. The dragon’s primal need to protect the pack seeped passed past her shields.
Taggert stepped into her space, so close less than an inch separating them, effectively drawing her attention as his delicious heat soaked into her. “Including Jackson and me.”
Power evaporated in the air from one breath to the next, the temperature dropping a good ten degrees. She swallowed down the current, the force of it like razor blades slicing her throat, the sudden influx of energy sloshing through her as she struggled to reabsorb it all.
The dragon wrapped around her and squeezed, sucking the air from her lungs. The beast dragged the energy from her system, claws gouging her insides as the current sank heavily into her bones. Her limbs and face tingled as if she’d sucked on a car battery.
Her body jolted at the sharp crack of the whip as if the lash had been aimed at her. Her attention snapped toward Jackson, afraid if she didn’t watch, he’d vanish forever.
Even from the distance, she could feel energy gather around him. Shifting normally wasn’t smooth or graceful. Jackson’s shift to his animal form was different. There were no muscles popping, no bones snapping or rippling fur, no blood or gore as flesh reformed.
It took less than a minute for the human form to melt down, leaving a gigantic wolf in his place. The big wolf was gorgeous, the lines of his body tightly packed with muscles, and easily twice his normal size, a rare trait that actually allowed him to gain body mass when he shifted. His fur had an amazing mix of tawny gold tinged with black instead of the normal black and white of his race.
The wolf stood strong and proud as he faced the crowd.
No one cheered or clapped. What should’ve been an amazing sight twisted into fear, the change so fast and brutal, a number of people gasped in shock, leaning all the way back in their seats to get away. Some people even scrambled higher in the bleachers to escape such a dangerous monster.
They wanted to see the change, expected to find a cuddly animal waiting, not a vicious wolf appearing out of thin air, able to kill a man with one swipe of his massive claws. Fear perfumed the air, the smell like catnip to animals. Shifters could control their baser urges, but only to an extent. Without a strong alpha, they could become riled and revert to their most primal form. Their beast would ultimately giving into the need to hunt.
The whip whistled through the air as if that would do anything to prevent the wolf from attacking. The wolf didn’t flinch as the leather kissed his fur. The whip sailed again, trying to work him into a frenzy, give the crowd a show, but they couldn’t push him too far or risk the animal losing control.
Until she spotted two men hidden at the perimeter of the tent, guns pointed with Jackson in their sights.
One misstep and they would kill him.
Adrenaline spiked in her veins. She wanted to slip around the curtains, sneak up on them and rip out their yellow spines for being such cowards. The dragon hummed in agreement, and her skin tingled as the large beast began to push to the surface.
Jackson lifted his head, sniffing the air, then stilled. Not even his chest moved as those vivid green eyes of his lowered. Despite the benches and the people separating them, his eyes locked onto her, all majestic wolf and warrior. She couldn’t be prouder.
He would never bend, never break, loyal down to the bone.
As he continued to stare, his eyes began to glow as his wolf struggled to take over and a deep oh, shit feeling trembled through her.
His beast recognized the danger and wanted to take her away and protect her. Muscles bunched as he prepared to move, and a wave of helple
ssness nearly strangled her.
They would shoot him.
Pandemonium would erupt from the audience.
And she was too damned far away to calm him.
Much as she hated to admit it, she was the one inciting him more than that blasted whip ever could.
Just like Clancy wanted.
It was too soon yet. She had to pretend to be human, so she run and left him behind like some coward. Everything inside her rebelled at abandoning him.
Clancy smirked, noticing Jackson’s weakness, and she wanted to rip off his face. Sensing her intent, Taggert grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the tent. With one last stricken glance at Jackson, Raven went without a struggle.
Chapter Thirteen
DAY TWO: MIDNIGHT
The crowd had thinned considerably, the kids having long since gone to bed with fairytales dancing in their heads as the evening crept closer to midnight. The noise didn’t taper off. If anything, the guests became rowdier, and the laughter more boisterous.
After leaving the tent, she’d expected the threat to have lessened. If anything, Raven couldn’t get over the impression she was being watched. She slowed her steps, trying to pinpoint her unease and found her gaze returning time and again to the woods … away from the circus.
Someone was out there.
When she focused, she could almost sense him.
A connection snapped into place.
Burning anger spread like wildfire, a hunger to destroy everything threatened to overtake her, and she quickly cut the link. Raven was floored. She wanted to believe the circus was responsible for the disappearances so she could go after Clancy, but someone in the forest wanted to destroy the circus and didn’t care how they did it.
That meant Veronica had been telling the truth.
Someone was actually stalking the circus.
Son of a bitch!
Taggert opened the door to her jail and nudged her inside.
Raven had one foot lifted to step into the trailer when she stopped, mistrustful of Taggert’s sudden silence. “They’re going to make him fight, aren’t they?”
Raven Investigation 04 - Electric Legend Page 12
