Electric Heat (14 page)

 Chapter Twelve

DAY THREE: 3 AM

“
Y
ou’re
awfully quiet.”

Raven raised a brow, careful not to meet Rylan’s too-observant
gaze. “We are on our way to break into a secured building. Silence is kind of a
requirement.”

“You know what I mean.” They slipped under the cover of
darkness, his lean frame all but vanishing until he was only a smudge against
the inky horizon.

Vampire tricks.

Following suit, she manipulated the energy saturating the
air, pulled the darkness around her, and merged with the shadows like greeting
an old lover. The night was chilly, but she feared the cold came more from
within. She was trapped. To cut the people out of her life would mean
abandoning her pack and leaving them vulnerable for takeover.

Not an option.

“I need more time before you decide my fate.”

“Don’t cut yourself off from your friends.” Rylan’s voice
floated out in the night, barely a whisper of breath. “Take it from someone who
knows. Facing it by yourself will only make it worse.”

He was giving her a reprieve.

The relief was instant, and she took a shaky breath.

A comfortably silence settled between them as they
approached their destination. The building was short and squat, three stories
high at most, and wrapped in layers of magic. There was nothing special to set
it apart from any other building on campus. “You’re sure the bodies are in there?”

“I had all last night to search the campus. Even in the
middle of the night, people came and went from this building.” He stepped out
from the protection of the tree line, and it was all she could do not to yank
him back. “They delivered another body a few hours ago.”

The witch she’d interviewed, Crystal, must have died late
last night. Raven couldn’t say she felt sorry for the woman. “How do we get
inside?”

“All the openings are covered with magic.” He glanced at her
over his shoulder, having no trouble picking her out of her place of
concealment. “I believe that’s your department.”

The key to breaking and entering was making it look like you
belonged. Everyone knew she was there to solve a crime. Hopefully they weren’t also
aware she’d been asked to leave. She marched up to the front door, grinning
when she heard Rylan curse behind her.

She held out her hands, and the wards flared to life. Static
itched against her skin, the magic so thick it was as if she’d slammed into a
wall. She sank her fingers into the spell, allowing it to wrap around her. When
it didn’t recognize her magical signature, the ward thickened and trapped her
hands more effective than any handcuffs. “It’s a lock, not an alarm system.”

“Can you break it?”

“Yes.” She lied through her teeth. Honestly, she didn’t
know, but it was imperative they get inside the building. They’d come too far
to leave without answers.

Instead of trying to get away, she shoved against the wards.
Magic spilled down her arms in scalding waves, far too much to absorb. She
suspected if she tried to tear it apart as she had the gate, an alarm would
sound. No, she needed more finesse. She needed her power. She closed her eyes
and waited for electricity to rise at her call.

Nothing.

It had disappeared again.

Frustration grabbed her by the throat, and she spoke to the
creature.
You want me to trust you, then give me a reason. Help me. Give me
my powers back.

Mine.

Raven shivered at the raspy, possessive voice, but learned
something important with that one word.
You’re lying. You’re using the power
to make yourself stronger. If you don’t learn to share, we’re both going to
die.

There were a few seconds of silence, and she began to worry
the creature wouldn’t answer her plea. Then fire ignited from deep in her
bones, nearly dropping her to her knees as raw, untainted power flooded her
system. Acid splashed through her veins, and her breathing grew labored as she
struggled to keep the pain from eating her alive.

She needed to ground the power, or she would burn out.

Just when she was ready to thrust the brunt of it into the
ground, she hesitated. They needed to start working together.

Praying she knew what she was doing, she looped the current
back through her body and gave it back to the creature. She waited for it to
bounce around inside her like feedback and braced for the crippling pain to
strike. Much to her surprise, the electricity steadied. Part of her suspected
the creature had unleased it all at one time to teach her a lesson. She grabbed
a couple of strands of energy and wrapped them around her fingers.

She stepped closer, pushing her entire body into the spell until
she was fully immersed. The wards shoved back at the intrusion—not to release
her, no, she was fully trapped in its webbing. It was determined to keep her
right there until she was to be retrieved by the guards in the morning.

Not going to happen.

Raven unloaded her power into one section like a blowtorch, creating
a hole in the ward as the tiny filaments of the web began to bend. She wasn’t
sure how much time passed before the opening was large enough for both her and
Rylan to pass through.

She dropped the teeming power, and it settled heavily into
her bones, taking all the lovely warmth with it. She shivered at the sudden nip
in the air. They needed to keep moving. When she reached for the doorknob, a
small tremor shook her fingers, an aftereffect of using so much power, and she
quickly jerked open the door before Rylan could notice. “I’m not sure how long
it will last, so we’d better hurry.”

She slipped through the opening she’d created, taking care
not to touch the edges to avoid getting scorched. Rylan wasn’t so lucky. Without
the constant stream of power, the entrance had begun to shrink. He brushed a
little too close, and the smell of singed clothing was acrid in the air.

All the building lights were off, but her vision adjusted
within seconds. Raven wanted to believe it was her beast, but there was no more
denying that her body had begun to change.

“Follow me.” Rylan took the first left and headed toward the
back of the building.

Even with her enhanced eyes, Raven had a hard time picking
him out the shadows when he used his vampire skills, and she scrambled to catch
up. “How do you know which direction to take?”

“I can smell the decay. The scent is strongest this way.”

She winced, wishing she hadn’t asked, because now that he’d mentioned
it, the insidious smell of rot was everywhere. Rylan moved without making a sound,
but there was nothing she could do to avoid the way her shoes slapped against
the linoleum, no matter how she placed her feet.

“Raven.”

She jumped, barely holding back a squeal at the sound of her
name. “What?”

“That’s the third time we’ve passed this door.” Rylan glared
at it as if it was the door’s fault.

Raven glanced around. The place was so full of magic, she’d
stopped tracking it.

Stupid rookie mistake.

She focused on the energy around her, and the place lit up
like a Christmas tree. She ignored the natural energy from the walls and floors
that came from cables, but it only eliminated half the sources. One particular
line was brighter than the others. When she plucked the string, magic dusted in
the air.

One whiff told its own tale, and she was nearly overwhelmed
by the stench of overly sweet caramel. She dropped her second sight and faced
Rylan. “It’s a confusion spell, the longer you’re immersed in it, the stronger
it gets. We must’ve triggered it when we entered.”

Rylan downright scowled at being tricked. “The perfect trap
to ensure an intruder doesn’t escape. Is there a way out?”

Raven hesitated while she studied the hex. “The spell is
woven through the outer sections of the hallways. I can try to cut through it,
but I’m not sure what kind of backlash would result. If we’re lucky, it might
alert others that we’re here.”

He raised a brow at her definition of luck. “And if we’re
not lucky?”

“The magic could rip us apart.”

He didn’t pace, didn’t move—hell, she doubted he even
breathed as he faced her. “What do you suggest?”

He trusted her to find a way out, and Raven wracked her
brain for a solution. She turned and trailed back down the hallway. The spell clung
to her, insidiously trying to work its way back into her system. “We need to
head back to the last corridor. I think if we leave the main hallway, the
effect of the spell will fade.”

Rylan didn’t hesitate. He bent, tossed her over his shoulder
and streaked down the corridor using his vampire speed. She grunted in surprise,
then quickly closed her eyes as the world blurred. As soon as they turned the
corner, the pressure building in her chest dissipated.

She tapped him in the middle of the back. “It’s gone.”

He gently lowered her to her feet as if she was fragile and
precious. Rylan studied her face for a moment, then nodded, as if reassured by
what he’d found. “I’m sorry. I should’ve suspected something—”

“Don’t.” She held up a hand and peered down the deserted
hall. “We both knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It’s my fault for not paying
attention. I got careless. Let’s find those bodies and leave before someone decides
to investigate.”

Rylan nodded and wove his way through the maze of halls.
Before long, she was hopelessly lost.

“Here.” Rylan stopped before a door. “They’re in here.”

Raven approached cautiously. Nothing out of the ordinary
jumped out at her. There were no overt spells waiting to snare her. She tentatively
reached out, but didn’t encounter anything other than cool steel doors. She
placed her hand over the keypad and drained the electricity with just a brush
of her fingertips. It gave a warning bleep that screeched before winding down
to nothing.

The door clicked as the locks disengaged. Raven grabbed the
handle and shoved it open. “Quick. As soon as I enter the room, the energy will
pour back into the number pad. It should register like they just lost power for
a few seconds.”

Rylan slipped through the door like a wraith, and she
marveled at his preternatural speed and silence. She felt as clumsy as an ox when
she followed. When the door latched shut behind her, she breathed a sigh of relief.

But when she glanced up, she lost all the air in her lungs.

There were eight bodies encased in the tomblike room. Each was
spread out on a gurney, their poses anything but restful. Their deaths had not
been easy. When Rylan reached to touch one, she shot forward and grabbed his
sleeve. “Don’t. There appears to be a spell wrapped around the corpses.”

Rylan looked down at the hand on his arm and deftly slipped
out of her hold, leaving her grasping at air. “They’re in stasis.”

Raven couldn’t take her eyes off the mummified corpses.
“Explain.”

“Stasis is a spell that keeps the body from breaking down
too fast. Decomposition is almost completely halted.”

“So they’re marinating in their own decay.” She turned to
look at him. “Why preserve the bodies?”

“For you? For the Prime?” Rylan shrugged it away as
unimportant. “The sun will be up soon. You need to hurry.”

Right.

Raven clutched her hands behind her back so she wouldn’t
accidently touch anything, then forced herself to move closer. There wasn’t a
wisp of magic remaining in any of the corpses. They’d been drained dry. She
leaned forward, then lurched back in in alarm when she caught a whiff of decay
and wild magic sealed inside the bodies.

She called up her second sight and peered at the corpses.
The symbol on their wrists blazed to life. The same mark she’d seen on Crystal.
Determined to follow the clue, she pushed her sight into the bodies.

Dark spores infested every cell in the corpse. At first, she
assumed it was decay eating away the tissue, but the way it multiplied seemed
off. Instead of destroying the tissue, the spores seemed to preserve it.