Raven Investigation 04 - Electric Legend

SOMETHING
MALEVOLENT HAS INFECTED THE FREAK SHOW, SPREADING TERROR AND DEATH WHEREVER THE
CIRCUS TRAVELS. ONE VISIT WILL ENCHANT YOU, BUT DON’T DARE STAY PAST DARK OR
YOU MIGHT NEVER LEAVE.

After her recent nearly-fatal case as a paranormal
consultant, Raven decides to take a much-needed vacation with her pack. They
stop at a freak show, a circus owned by the paranormal, and stumble upon a case
… or to be more precise, the pack is kidnapped and held hostage.

WHAT
WOULD YOU RISK FOR LOVE…

Raven plots their escape, knowing that if even one thing goes
wrong the circus would vanish overnight without a trace, taking her pack with
them. When her newly awakened dragon sabotages their every attempt to leave, Raven
must depend on her wits alone to discover who is terrorizing and killing the
shifters in the circus before her pack becomes the next target. Her situation
only grows more precarious when the bonds between her pack begin to unravel. To
save them all before it’s too late, Raven will have to make the ultimate
sacrifice.

This is a work of fiction. Names, character, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely
coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations for articles or reviews. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials.

Copyright © 2015
S
tacey
B
rutger

Cover artist: Amanda Kelsey of Razzle Dazzle Design (
www.razzdazzdesign.com
)

Editor: Amy Eye (http://theeyesforediting.com/)

Editor and Proofreader: Megan Kelly (http://www.megankellybooks.com/editing.htm)

All rights reserved.

A
special thanks to all my readers for their support.

I
wouldn’t be here without you.

To my
husband—

Thank
you for being you.

DAY ONE: FIRST DAY OF VACATION

M
enace pooled in the air, an icy chill that
crawled over her skin. Frost crept down her throat until her lungs crackled
with each breathe. Raven woke up gasping and found herself plastered over
Durant’s tiger form, using him like the world’s largest pillow. Death’s
bitterly cold fingers skimmed along her spine, and she took comfort when her
hand settled over her sword.

She remained perfectly still, expecting an attack at any
second.

Time stretched, tension mounted … then petered out when
nothing happened.

She lifted her head and cursed to find herself piled into
the back of a crowded station wagon, leaving her no room to maneuver with a
five-hundred-pound tiger taking up most of the space. With great reluctance,
she released the sword. In the cramped space, she’d be more apt to stab herself
than the bad guys. The metal sent a lick of static up her arm in protest at the
separation before gradually falling dormant.

The sword should’ve been safely tucked under the folded-down
seat.

So, how did it get into her hand?

Did it sense something or had it reacted to her unease?

Everything around her appeared blessedly normal. Durant
remained sleeping as he recovered from his injuries. Crushing relief trickled
through her that he’d managed to survive the severity of the wound. He’d come
so close to dying that her throat still ached every time she saw him.

Needing a distraction before she got maudlin, she focused on
what triggered her unease. She eased backward, her body rebelled at leaving the
warm haven, the pain like ripping off her skin.

Before she could make her escape, Durant placed one large
paw on her shoulder. The furry mitt pinned her down with ease as if she were a
tiny mouse, and a displeased growl rumbled in his chest. Those golden eyes of
his cracked open. Unable to stop herself, she stroked her fingers along his
shoulder where he’d been speared by a sword in an attempt to save her life and marveled
at the warm fur beneath her fingertips.

He’d survived.

Contented by her touch—or maybe that she couldn’t escape the
confines of the car—he heaved a sigh and closed his eyes. Raven sat back on her
haunches and finally tore her attention away from Durant, determined to discover
what had triggered her disquiet.

Energy welled up from her bones at her growing agitation,
and she quickly trampled it down. As a rare conduit, she had the ability to control
electricity, her very touch deadly if she wasn’t careful. In this tin can of a
car, there’d be a good chance she’d end up lighting everyone up if she lost
control.

Her powers were both a blessing and a curse, leaving her
more than human. To make things more complicated, she’d recently learned that
she was a shifter, not to mention a rare female alpha.

She didn’t grow up in that world, spent most of her life
avoiding any entanglements and minded her own business.

Now she was paying for it.

She only knew the basics about shifters. Her pack was
scrambling to help her fill in the blanks, guiding her through the steps, but
it left her at a disadvantage. She didn’t know the rules and ended up stepping
on toes, gaining her share of friends and enemies.

Jackson sat in the driver’s seat. As an enforcer, he was
granted the privilege of operating a car. Only those with the utmost restraint
were permitted to drive—smart when road rage could provoke a shifter to change
into his beast and attack. Taggert was more beta, his sandy-blond head bent as
he diligently studied a map, but Raven was beginning to suspect that when she
used her power to save his life, she’d changed him on an elemental level.

He was more aggressive. Growing possessive and territorial.

Alpha traits.

She frowned in worry, wondering if there was anything she
could do to stop the process, but feared it was much too late.

Behind him, the sun was just a hint on the horizon, turning
the sky a bright crimson as it began its descent. The sunset should’ve been
peaceful, but it looked too much like spilled blood. Towering redwoods lined
both sides of the road, sending shadows chasing from tree to tree as the car sped
past. The place felt almost primordial, danger thick in the air as if ready to
reach out and squash them. A shimmer of fog wound through the trees, only
emphasizing the haunted and uninviting feel.

As if warning unwary travelers away.

“You’re awake.” Taggert spotted her first, his splintered
green and brown eyes devouring her. He’d always seemed so attuned to her, now
more than ever.

Raven ignored the way her heart fluttered pathetically under
his perusal. “Where are we?” Her voice emerged as a croak, and she cleared her
throat, unable to drop her gaze as she drank in his appearance.

A tiny smile kicked up the corner of his mouth as if he
could read her thoughts and liked knowing he had an effect on her. “We’re at
the northern end of Oregon.”

Raven blinked in surprise, not expecting that they’d leave California.

“We’ve been careful to go around the larger packs so as not
to invade their territories.” Jackson studied her through the rearview mirror,
his cool gaze clinical and detached. But beneath, she saw the worry and the
hint of uncertainty.

He was one of the strongest shifters she knew. She winced in
shame, knowing that by pushing him away to protect him, she’d ended up hurting
him instead. Then what he said registered. “Which territories?”

“Bears.”

Bears had a habit of being territorial and would viciously
defend what they considered theirs. They were big and mean and capable of
getting rid of any bodies before law enforcement had a chance to investigate.
They didn’t need a pack or allies, preferring the solitude of their families.
“Is that wise?”

Taggert shrugged, unconcerned at the prospect of being
mauled to death. “As long as we don’t linger in their territory, we don’t have
to present ourselves to the alpha.”

Taggert’s father had moved from one location to the next,
keeping them under the radar to provide his son a normal life … as much as one
could be considered normal when one was a shifter pretending to be human just to
survive. Her heart ached for the lonely boy, but the pang eased to know that his
father loved him enough to risk everything to give his son a chance to survive
without the stigma of being labeled a rogue.

“Where are we heading?”

Taggert’s eyes glimmered with the thrill of excitement. “We
won’t know until we arrive.”

Lone shifters without a pack, those deemed rogue, couldn’t
afford to make plans. They roamed from territory to territory, never settling
or drawing attention to themselves, making it virtually impossible for anyone
to track them.

Clever, but a twinge of sadness echoed in her soul at the nomadic
life he’d been forced to live before she stumbled into his life.

No friends.

No family.

No pack.

Beneath Taggert’s calm exterior rested a ruthless determination
to protect her at any cost. It frightened the crap out of her. She’d nearly
lost him once. Nearly lost everyone in her pack. She had to be more careful, or
they might not be so lucky next time.

Her fingers tightened in Durant’s fur, the steady thump of
his heart easing the panic clawing up her throat, and she forced herself to
release him.

The unease plaguing her continued to press against her
chest. As the distance between them and the foreign pack territory yawned
wider, she expected the smothering pressure to dissipate.

It didn’t.

She rubbed her chest and scanned the countryside, but there
was nothing to see but miles and miles of trees and road. She peeked out the
rear window for the third time in the last five minutes, expecting to see
someone on their tail, something she could fight.

Only everything appeared ordinary.

They hadn’t had peace for so long, the lack of a direct threat
left her reeling half a step off. It could explain her unease. Pretending
everything was normal, she forced herself to stop staring out the window and
faced Taggert. “Where are we staying for the night?”

Taggert nodded toward the woods, and her eyes widened in
alarm. “Camping?”

A shiver worked up her spine at the thought of living
outside without the shelter of walls. They were shifters for gosh sakes, part
animal, so why did her skin crawl when she peered into the massive trees
surrounding them? “But aren’t we too close to the pack borders?”

Jackson’s hands clenched on the wheel. “Do you trust us?”

Raven didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

“People in town will notice our presence. If we camp, no one
will have a record of our passing.”

Everything he said was true, so why did she suspect that both
of them were keeping something from her? Then her heart dropped. “You’re afraid
I’ll lose control and hurt someone.”

Their silence gutted her, and she recoiled from the truth as
the confining space of the car became smothering.

They thought her a monster.

They were right to be afraid, and she swallowed hard at the
brutal truth.

“Raven.”

She flinched at the sound of her name.

“It’s the only way we know how to protect you. If one of us
is threatened, you’ll do anything to keep us safe.”

There was no denying the truth of Jackson’s words, and her
dragon hummed in agreement. Raven lifted her chin, feeling defensive, as if what
he’d said was a bad thing. “So would you.”

“Yes, but wolves are common. No one would take note of us.
If pushed, can you guarantee that you won’t react? Once people discover your
affinity for electricity, word will spread like wildfire.”

Raven wanted to laugh. Her powers were the least of her
concern. They didn’t know her creature had wakened, and it was the last thing
she wanted them to find out, not until she could find a balance.

“Makes sense.” Raven cringed, hating that she kept something
from them.

“Besides—” Taggert turned in his seat to watch her. “Being
out in open air will help your beast.”

That was when she knew they both suspected something had
happened. Like a coward, she nodded and turned away.

Raven scratched the itch at her side. The small metal symbol
imbedded into her flesh felt warm and irritated, but the last thing she could
do was peek with the guys watching her every move. But that wasn’t her only
concern. In helping the witches find a killer murdering them, she’d becoming
infected with tainted magic. She needed to check and gauge how far the
infection had spread. She was almost afraid to see how it reacted to the creature
that inhabited her body.

The witches feared the taint would make her beast feral.

An unstoppable killing machine.

With her emotions growing more volatile, Raven feared they
might be right.

No one could ever discover she harbored an actual dragon. As
far as the paranormal world was concerned, dragons were evil creatures that
were better off left to myths and legends. If anyone ever suspected the truth,
she’d be lucky to survive.

Oh, she trusted the unconventional pack of outsiders she’d
somehow collected, but the truth would only put them in more danger. She needed
to find a way to harness both her powers and the dragon, or she could lose the
fragile pack she’d fought so hard to keep safe.

The dragon stretched under her skin until her body felt cramped
and small. Claws thunked into the tender undersides of her ribs, gouging
grooves into her flesh in protest of having the pack taken from her.

Knowing they were in agreement, the crippling fear eased.

They would do whatever was necessary to protect the pack.

When she glanced up, she found Jackson staring at her. The
instant their eyes met, the car lurched as if someone had plowed into them. The
vehicle shuddered then veered wildly toward the ditch. The momentum threw her
sideways, and her head smacked the glass with a brutal thud. The tires caught
gravel, and the car began to spin and twist.