Electric Storm (A Raven Investigations Novel)

by Brutger, Stacey

  “A little help here.” Dominic’s fingers were wrapped around the steering wheel, his focus centered on the mirror and the truck rapidly closing the distance between them.

  Her hand settled against the metal. Electricity leapt from her body, slithering along the frame and hit the cable, feeding it just enough to turn over the engine. “Now.”

  The car revved to life. Gears shifted. She hit the back seat hard enough to knock the air from her. Headlights grew brighter, lighting up the interior of the car. When she worried the Ogre would force them off the road, the car slowly pulled away.

  “How’d you know where to find me?”

  He didn’t spare her a glance, his dark head bent as he concentrated on navigating the streets. “Trish and Dina returned without you. Something about a slave auction. They assumed you’d return home. When you didn’t, I grew worried.”

  Raven tossed her trashed cell on the front seat in silent explanation and resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his overprotectiveness. “You were the one who ordered me to go out in the first place.”

  “Not with some ridiculous plan they concocted.”

  Ouch, that stung, but hindsight proved to be true. “So you came to rescue me.”

  “Let’s just say you have a way of attracting trouble. I grew concerned.”

  A small frown twisted his lips, all the emotion he permitted himself. His gaze flickered to the boy in the back seat, and he dropped the subject despite the obvious desire to take her to task. He didn’t have to say a word. Endangering other lives to pick out a lover didn’t seem so bright now.

  A look out the back window showed the truck keeping pace.

  “We won’t be able to outdistance him. If we can find a working power grid, I should be able to lose him in traffic.” Dominic took the next corner with a chirp of the tires.

  Her ass slid across the seat, plastering her against the boy. Despite her graceless sprawl across his lap, he braced them both. Though not built with bulging muscles like the Ogre, he was no weakling, supporting her without effort, the steady strength very solid under her touch. Instead of worrying, he focused solely on protecting her, seemingly pleased at the attention.

  And practically naked.

  Uncomfortable with the picture, she untangled herself and scooted to the other side of the car. The temperature in the cab seemed to have risen. The scent of woods, his scent, followed her, wrapped around her and wouldn’t let her mind shuffle him away. He had to be eight to ten years younger than herself. The Ogre said she was supposed to be his protector. In spite of her mental protests, delicious heat at the touch of his skin continued to lick over her body, inviting so much more.

  Dominic met her gaze in the mirror. “We can take care of the threat back at the house.”

  A public confrontation would only draw attention. Attention she needed to avoid if she wanted to remain hidden. Trapped, Raven gave a subtle nod, hating the feeling of being cornered. They’d take them both home.

  God help them all.

  * * *

  The large house they pulled up to was technically not hers, not even in name, but the great white monstrosity welcomed her with a little hum of energy it stored within its walls ever since she moved into the place. Proof that nothing was safe in her life without her power trying to hijack whatever it touched. With the house, she didn’t mind too much. It felt like home.

  When she and a group of misfits escaped the labs, they also took whatever they could with them. Computer data, information on the experiments, background on the organization, money accounts, deeds to houses, stocks, whatever they could grab.

  They were trained to be fast, efficient, and deadly. In one day, they had almost everything of value transferred over to a holding company, then sold and filtered through a half a dozen other companies. This house was one of the properties. She claimed it as her own. Her refuge. It wasn’t stealing, not really, since the property had been taken from its paranormal owner when they were inducted into the program.

  It seemed fitting somehow.

  Angry voices from the house drifted to them when Dominic cut the engine.

  The gang.

  Dominic exited the car, and she followed suit, the boy not far behind.

  After escaping the program, they’d agreed the best survival method would be to stick around and work together to protect others of their kind. They met once a month and worked through potential threats that endangered the tenuous peace between paranomals and humans. It worked in theory. Not so much in actual practice. She usually stayed for the debriefing and then did her best to disappear until they left.

  Dominic’s face hardened, his shoulders drew back then fell as he sighed. Bristles lined his jaw, giving him a haggard appearance. “Are you going to be all right with them?” He jerked his head in the direction of the two men standing next to the truck. The Ogre was talking, gesturing, the boy shook his head, pulling a bag and a case from the back of the truck.

  “I’ll be fine.” She tried to smile, but the tightness in her face made it impossible.

  “I’ll expect a report when I return.” He hesitated and studied the guys through narrowed eyes. Without another word, Dominic turned and disappeared inside the house. She didn’t envy him his job of leader.

  As the men continued to argue, Raven kept her back turned in a false sense of privacy. She didn’t care what they said. She had more pressing concerns like what the hell she was going to do with the both of them.

  While she had time alone, rare in the last week and she had a feeling even more so now, she allowed a little of the current overload stored at her center to dissipate harmlessly into the ground. Her muscles had the consistency of rubber and instantly missed the loss of spark. The ache in her body eased as every ounce of heat left.

  When she’d settled into the house, the first order of business had been to remove any dead remains from the property within a mile radius. The last thing she needed was to accidentally re-animate a corpse when excess energy infiltrated the ground.

  So far there had been no mistakes, nothing dead trying to sneak into her house. No hysterical calls from the police she had to scramble to cover. At least not yet. She resisted the urge to rub her arms. Revealing weakness meant exploitation in the labs.

  What little control she could muster over the living was by direct touch only. Objects were easier, people often too fragile to try such guesswork on without serious consequences.

  “We need to get your hand bandaged.”

  The boy. She blinked at him, surprised at his absolute silent approach. She followed his gaze to find tiny slivers of glass imbedded in the palms of her gloves. The excess energy had kept her from feeling the pain. All she felt now was a slight pull. Her body had healed with the slivers still inside her flesh instead of pushing them out.

  When she reached to jerk the glass out, he caught her wrist. “We need better light. If you pull it out now, you might leave pieces behind. Show me where you store the medical supplies, and I’ll do it.”

  Over his head, she caught the Ogre clenching his fists. Not removing her gaze from him, she answered. “I’m fine. Let’s get inside and figure out where we go from here.”

  The old place had a Victorian feel, grand open spaces, large rambling hallways, and a staircase that curved along the wall to the second floor and opened up to a balcony. The acoustics were spectacular as they could attest to by the heated argument from the office to her left. Hunching her shoulders, she hurried to the back of the house. She had to settle the men before she could allow herself the luxury to relax her guard.

  She pushed open the swinging door to the kitchen. Tall, wide windows dominated half of the room to the left. Their images gleamed back at her from the darkened glass. Ignoring the guys, she turned on the faucet and ran her hands under the water.

  She sucked in a breath then yanked out a large shard. Then two of the smaller ones in rapid succession. Sharp pain stung her palms. Flesh tore and blood filled the fingers of her g
loves.

  “Here.” When the boy reached for her hand, she jerked back.

  “Stay away.” The tightness in her throat pitched the words harsher than she intended. The light in his eyes dimmed, but he obediently stepped back. Ashamed of her behavior, she worked the zipper of her gloves and yanked them down her arms and then off. “I’m sorry. I—”

  “I overstepped my bounds.” He bowed his head, gazing down at his feet, so damned submissive her teeth ached.

  “It’s the blood.” Heat filled her face when she blurted out the words. “You can’t touch the blood. I’m not sure what would happen if you did.”

  Compassion softened his features. “Shifters can’t catch human diseases.”

  “Not exactly.” She turned her back on them and fished out the last bit of the glass, watching the pink water disappear down the drain.

  Warmth burned her palms, and the gouges drew closed, sealing themselves. Turning off the water, she picked up a towel and dried her hands, avoiding their gazes.

  “You’re a shifter?” Wonder and excitement filled the kid’s voice. “I didn’t sense it at all.”

  “Yes. No.” She tightened her lips and pressed her hands against the counter, bracing herself. “Right now, I’m more concerned about what to do with the both of you.”

  “But you healed yourself.” The Ogre lumbered closer, a deep, puzzled frown between his brows. He leaned over and inhaled slowly, deeply, dragging in her scent, his thick, dark brown hair sliding over his forehead. “You don’t smell of death, no stench of vampire or shifter.”

  A shiver crept down her spine. Her stomach somersaulted at his nearness and the deep, vibrant sound of his voice so close to her ear. Something in her very much liked his closeness. The beasts at her center shifted restlessly, but thankfully remained hidden. She gingerly stepped away, uncomfortable with her swinging emotions.

  “Jackson has some medical training. Maybe he can–”

  “You’re a healer?” Confusion swirled inside her. “Then why haven’t you healed his back?”

  The men stilled, studying her again. Something in their expressions drew on old suspicions that had kept her alive in the labs long after those around her had died. She took another step back, facing both of them. “Why doesn’t your animal heal your wounds or clear your system of drugs?”

  They exchanged a silent glance and dread tightened her gut. The boy turned to her, his head bowed both in submission and curiosity. “Shifters can’t be drugged. Our metabolism acts too fast for anything to affect our system.”

  Raven shook her head. “At first I thought it was the necklace that wouldn’t allow your beast to heal, but it’s not.” If what they said was true, it was her duty to protect the kid. Until she could find a safer place for him, she was stuck with the job. That meant she had to own up to her responsibilities.

  “Continual dosing over a long period of time can lead to drugs lingering in your system.” They did it to her and others often enough in the labs. She stepped forward, maintaining her distance from the Ogre...er, Jackson. “May I?”

  When she stretched out her arm, the boy flinched. She pulled away. “I need to check something. You have my word I won’t touch you.”

  A dusky rose filled his cheeks. “I’m yours to command.”

  Horror sliced through her at his soft refrain. “I’m no one’s master.” She almost lost her courage, almost left him to his own devices, but there was something shattered in his eyes that she recognized.

  She lifted her hand again, palms outward, her heart stuttering at being so close and having all that naked male chest on display. “Don’t move.” She pressed closer, narrowing the space separating them to a few inches. Heat poured off his skin. She closed her eyes, concentrated, searching for the energy field that surrounded the living. Most people labeled it an aura. It bowed under her touch, fluctuating wildly at the intrusion.

  Sparks snapped around her, melding with his shield, testing, judging and finding the source of the sickness ravishing his beast. Any attraction vanished, replaced by concern. To heal him completely would take more out of both of them than she was willing to risk at the moment, revealing more of herself than she was comfortable. The drugs would have to sweat out of his system the normal way.

  With a little more push, she focused on the opened wounds on his back, forcing them to mend by redirecting the energy in his body to the injuries.

  An abrupt, half growl made her jerk back. Her eyes snapped wide to find Jackson pulling the kid away. When both men looked at her, their eyes had gone neon yellow.

  “What did you do?”

  The guttural question stung like a reprimand. She curled her fingers into fists and lifted her chin, refusing to back down. She had done nothing wrong. Jackson had no right to judge her when he demanded that she take responsibility for the kid in the first place. “He was injured. I healed him.”

  She shook off her irritation and faced the kid. “Your metabolism should drive the drug out of your system in the next day or so. You’ll be hungry, queasy but you should start feeling normal.”

  They stared at her like she was a freak. Their perusal needled her pride, and she stiffened her spine. Maybe it was better this way. She spent her life keeping her distance from others. She didn’t know what it was about the boy that had her forgetting her own rules.

  “Food’s in the kitchen, take any open room upstairs. We’ll talk in the morning about other arrangements.”

  Chapter Four

  DAY TWO: MORNING

  The smell of hickory coffee penetrated Raven’s preoccupation, and she stretched at the computer, the long night leaving her exhausted. Her mouth watered, and she gazed longingly at the empty counter space.

  Damn Dominic and his rules. His first order of business had been to remove her coffeemaker and place it upstairs, spouting such claptrap that she’d never emerge from her cave otherwise.

  With a disgusted sigh, she lifted her fingers off the keyboard and watched her computer power down. One way to maintain security was to build a computer that only she could run. Who else in this world would be able to power the machine just by touch? Any tampering would melt the hard drive.

  Another whiff of dark brew invaded her senses. She pushed back the chair and rose, tugging on her gloves, feeling more herself with the added protection. The vampire case would have to wait, the prep work, a must when dealing with the paranormal, was mostly done. The meeting to see if she would accept the job wasn’t until ten tonight.

  Vampire hours, you got to love them.

  The lights flickered and turned off as she walked by, the basement suite built for convenience, sustained by her power. The reinforced cinder walls able to withstand whatever she could throw at them without harming anyone else. In theory. She hadn’t had to put it to the test yet.

  Her knuckles whitened on the knob. A quick scan confirmed she had all her power locked down tight, leaving her feel strangely vulnerable not to have the threads of energy at her beck and call. Maybe today she could have a conversation without running away like a coward.

  She pulled the door open and promptly tripped over the body sprawled at the base of the door. With a yelp, she stumbled, nearly taking a digger on the floor before catching her balance.

  Crouching, she pressed one hand against the wall and dropped the shields that took hours to prepare. Energy immediately leapt at her touch as if starved for the very taste of her. She drank the current from the wires like a glutton and forced her body to take more as she scanned the room for any threat. Static crackled across her skin, the hair on her arms stood to attention.

  “Morning.”

  The boy pushed himself up from where he rested, turning until he had his back to the wall so they were eye level.

  When no danger lashed out at her, she jerked her touch away from the wall. Energy slithered over her skin, luring her to attack and not wait for a fight. She inhaled carefully but found no stench of an intruder or coppery scent of blood. “Are you in
jured?”

  “No.” Sleep left his voice husky, drawing her attention to him. A bashful smile brightened his face. He ran a hand through his shaggy, sun-streaked mop of hair, only to have the straight strands fell back carelessly around his shoulders. A warm flush crept into her cheeks and her heart tripped at the sexy, rumpled look of him.

  “Why were you on the floor?” Disgruntled by the array of emotions that flickered through her in the space of five seconds, she dropped her gaze, rose, and brushed off her pants.

  “I must’ve fallen asleep.”

  She eyed him critically, searching for the lie. “On the floor?”

  “I was waiting for you.”

  “Me?” Her voice squeaked on the word. “What on earth for?”

  “Because he doesn’t like strange places and you left him alone. He wasn’t going to give you a chance to slip away.” The Ogre sauntered down the stairs, comfortable with his body and her house in a way that had her swallowing hard. His dark brown hair was still damp from his shower, a slight curl that softened his face despite the thunderous expression he directed at her.

  She gritted her teeth, reminding herself that despite all that masculinity, an ass still lived beneath the surface.

  “I gave my word.” Raven straightened to face him and even managed not to wince, because she had intended to find a new place for them.

  The boy stood gracefully, no worse for wear, and she craned her neck back to meet his gaze. She didn’t remember him being so tall yesterday.

  All he did was stare at her, unmoving, not breathing. Feeling self-conscious and flustered at the deep curiosity, she gathered up her hair, pinning it at the nape of her neck to cover the distinctive silver that continued to eat away at the tips of the black strands. A side effect from using her powers.

  At her movement, his expression blanked. He picked up his small duffle bag, a guitar case and nodded to her. “Where would you like me to store my things?”