Raven Investigation 04 - Electric Legend (23 page)

Then he disappeared in a mass of
brown fur.

Raven twisted to evade the line of
fire, but knew she’d never get out of the way in time. Jackson charged toward
her, when it didn’t appear he could close the gap between them, he threw
himself in the way of the bullets.

Two bullets passed harmlessly,
while a third winged him before continuing on its deadly course toward her.

Durant roared in denial.

The ghost wolf flared to life,
blazing with energy gained from the storm. The beast leapt toward her, slamming
into her seconds before the bullets, knocking her out of the way.

Her skin tingled at the contract.

The beast gazed down at her, satisfaction
shining in his eyes as his body slowly began to disintegrate into thousands of
fireflies before burning away into the night. With his quest for revenge gone,
there was no need for him to stay.

Durant and Jackson skidded to a
stop at her side a second later. Durant searched her for injures, then thrust
out his hand to help her to stand. One tug and she found herself practically
swept off her feet. He kept pulling until she was snug in his arms, plastered
against his chest. Not that he seemed to mind, wrapping his arms around her
like he never wanted to let her go.

Durant patted her down, searching
for injuries, while Jackson held back. Satisfied that she remained unhurt,
Durant rested his forehead against hers. “Thank God.”

Raven snuggled in his arms,
surprised to find a faint tremor running through him. She brushed her hands a
down his sides. Her fingers met warm, smooth skin, while in her mind his beast rubbed
his full body against her, his tail twining around her legs, seeking comfort before
he finally pulled away.

She held on for a few seconds more,
reluctant to release him, not after all the near misses they had so recently.
Only when she heard his beast give a little rumbling purr did she finally let
go.

Jackson stood within touching
distance, not moving, the enforcer still in control. His arm bled sluggishly,
and all her confusion and anger at him melted away.

He sensed the change in an instant
and lunged toward her, crushing her to his chest. “What happened?”

Her wounds protested, but Raven
didn’t complain, glad to just be in his arms. “The wolf wanted vengeance
against Clancy so badly that when the beast died, he remained behind as a
ghost. When they shoved me in that cage, I must have woken him up. He could’ve
gone for Clancy, but he must have used the last of his energy to save my life.”

Speaking of Clancy, she shoved away
from the men see the two shifters still fighting a pretty even battle. Both men
were torn to shreds, blood flowing freely. Raven grabbed her sword and ran
toward the fight.

It was all the incentive the others
needed.  

The rest of the shifters waded into
the fight, teeth and claws flashing, each intent on taking their own pound of
flesh. The one-ton bull didn’t stand a chance.

Clancy bellowed in anger and
denial.

He threw off the first few
shifters, his body rippling as he began to shift.

Durant grabbed her arm and held her
back. “Leave them their justice.”

Raven hesitated, then did as told.

Her people were no longer in
danger.

She was tired of fighting.

Black twisted horns, at least a
foot long, formed out of Clancy’s head, the pointed tips created for gouging.
With a swing of his head, one man was nearly cut in half. Another was impaled,
his body lifted off the ground, sliding farther on the horns before Clancy
tossed the body ten feet through the air with a twist of his head.

The giant grizzly didn’t let him
finish, bodily picking him up between massive jaws and shaking him like a
ragdoll until every bone in his body had to be pulverized. Then he dropped the
still form, and continued to maul him, powerful shoulders bunching and
straining. With each swipe of those razor-sharp, inch-long claws, blood and
flesh flew as he dug into the body.

With the death of the alpha, the
bindings caught fire and unwound like a frayed string, leaving deep scorch
marks throughout the pack as the final strands seared away.

The rest of the people didn’t
hesitate, going after the sadistic soldiers who’d taken such pleasure in
torturing them over the years. A few men ran, managed a yard or two before
getting caught, and shredded by teeth and claws.

Raven turned away.

She should be pleased, the threat
was over, but the viciousness left her reeling. Most of the shifters had
remained human, but they’d lost all their humanity in their attack. The dragon
wanted to join them, but Raven held the beast back, wondering how long she
would remain human if she ever gave in to the craving for violence.

Durant limped over to her, his body
bloody and bruised, bumping his shoulder into hers as if unable to stand near
and not touch her. She understood the sentiment exactly and leaned into his
strength.

“You did it.” His words of praise
were whispered in her ear.

“No, they did.” Raven glanced down
at her sword, unsettled by how much influence the blade had over her when in
contact with her skin. Now that the battle was over, all she felt was cool
metal.

The threat was over, so why wasn’t
she relieved?

The overwhelming urge to protect
the pack kept her on edge, her senses jumping to high alert as she searched for
the threat. She studied the shadows, wondering what could be hiding behind the
trees or waiting for them in the long grass.

Durant stepped into her line of sight.
“The storm is affecting you.”

Raven rubbed her temple at the building
ache, not disagreeing. “Maybe.”

“You’re worrying for nothing.” But
even as he said it, he began assessing the crowd, jumping from one person to
the next as he noted the possible threats.

Both men took up a protective
circle around her … all but Taggert.

Her heart squeezed so hard she
couldn’t catch her breath. “Where’s Taggert?”

Raven whirled, pushing through the
crowd.

People grunted as static soaked
into her skin in the form of a nasty shock and scrambled to get out of her way.

The storm was messing with her
ability to track him.

Her shields were shut down too
damned tight to be able to track him through the pack connection.

Her stomach churned with the only
option left to her.

She dropped her shields, nearly
doubling over in agony as the storm locked in on her. The pain sucker-punched
her in the chest, stealing her breath as if she grabbed a live power line with
her bare hands. Energy surged toward her in an avalanche of raw current.

It didn’t want to kill her. It
wanted her to use it, and her fingers tingled with the temptation.

Everyone around her fell silent,
slowly shuffling away, heads bowed in submission.

The beast hummed in pleasure at the
action, sipping the current like a fine wine, each second growing stronger … growing
unstoppable and Raven could do nothing to cut the flow.

But maybe she could distract the
dragon.

We need to find Taggert.

Though they were fully intertwined,
she treated her beast like a separate creature. Something outside herself but
connected on an elemental level. She so rarely communicated with her more
primitive side, she didn’t even know if the dragon would notice her plea.

Much to her surprise, the dragon
shot to attention, lifted her big head, and inhaled a deep breath. Thousands of
smells inundated her, way too many to analyze, and she struggled to suppress a
wave of nausea that threatened to overtake her. The beast had no such problems,
quickly categorizing everything. Then, moving as one, they turned toward a
series of small tents … or more precisely, the shadows between them.

“Are you looking for your little
pet?” The mermaid dragged an unresponsive Taggert after her.

Worry riddled Raven, and she
struggled to keep thinking, keep functioning and not just react.

Something was wrong with Taggert.

He wouldn’t go meekly without a
fight.

He panted heavily, his eyes glazed,
his body moving sluggishly.

Raven searched him for any
injuries, but couldn’t detect anything that would make him obey Veronica. It
was as if he was under some sort of trance.

The dragon forced her vision to
change.

She expected to see a web of energy,
some spell controlling him that she could sever.

But she found nothing that would
hold him in place.

The only energy around him came
from his beast as it struggled to rise.

Since he couldn’t shift, the sudden
influx had to be sheer torture.

“What’s wrong?” Raven could barely
speak past the tightness in her throat. “Why doesn’t he stop and pull back his
beast?”

Durant came to a stop at her side,
his expression grim. “He’s cresting.”

Cresting takes place at puberty,
when a shifter changes into his beast form for the first time. It could also be
trigged by stress.

If a shifter was more human than
beast, they would never shift.

Taggert was one of those people.

If he tried to shift, his beast
would rip him apart.

The urgent need to go to him beat
at her like a compulsion.

She could help him.

Raven lunged forward. Before she
managed to take two steps, Durant wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled
her back against his body.

No matter how she struggled, he
refused to loosen his hold.

“Release him.” Raven’s hand tightened
on her sword, a red mist rising from the blade as the magic sensed the coming
battle and lusted for another taste of blood.

Veronica smiled, revealing needle-like
teeth. She lifted wickedly sharp claws and pressed them against Taggert’s
throat. “No.”

Raven stilled, her eyes dropping to
the talon resting directly over his pulse.

Only when she stopped struggling
did Durant released her, then stood back to give them both room to maneuver.

“You’re not a mermaid.” The
saltwater tank had kept her alive, but just barely. It was why her scales
turned the water slimy and gave her a sickly look as soon as she left. 

“Smart girl. I’m a siren. Clancy
and I learned about the circus and challenged for control.” She kicked Taggert
behind the knees, dropping him to the ground.

Durant and Jackson kept close,
waiting for her signal. To her shock, Greggory and the other shifters followed
suit until Raven had a veritable army at her back.

Taggert’s eyes blazed yellow, his
beast surging toward the surface. Veronica laughed, grabbed his snarled hair
and yanked his head back. “Worthless.”

Raven lunged, her body
rematerializing and cutting the distance between them in half. It all happened
in less than a second.

Veronica crouched, setting her lips
against his throat. “Ah-ah. Careful.”

Saliva pooled in the siren’s mouth,
and she slowly licked his throat.

Tasting.

Raven halted abruptly. All the
missing shifters now made sense. They weren’t hunted, and they sure as hell
didn’t leave. “You took over the circus not to run it, but so you had a continuous
supply of shifters. You’re cannibalizing your own pack.”

“A girl’s gotta eat.” Veronica
licked her lips.

Horror rippled through Raven, and
she swallowed compulsively against the urge to gag. “Bindings connect you to
the pack. You and Clancy had to have felt every horrible, torturous thing you
did to them.”

“Ah, but fear adds a bit of spice.”
Veronica leaned forward, sniffing Taggert’s hair. “Yum.”

The dragon hunkered down, ready to
leap the distance.

Mine.

“You wear them down until they’re
so weak they can’t fight back. You need live flesh to survive. What better than
a bunch of shifters nobody would miss?” All the hunts, all the missing people …
they were dead. Raven tried to keep her attention off Taggert. She wouldn’t let
him die the same way. “Have any shifters ever been released or did you just kill
them all?”

“I’m the one in charge. I decide
who lives or dies.” A snarl curled Veronica’s lips. “Dead meat left me sick,
the tiny land animals offered no more than a snack. I was starving. I couldn’t
go back to the ocean. Together Clancy and I found the perfect solution. You
should be thanking me. I’m doing the shifter community a favor by getting rid
of the unwanted, the very dredges of the shifter society. I put them out of
their misery, giving a purpose to their pathetic lives.”

“You pretend you’re an apex
predator when you’re nothing more than scum. You can’t even hunt on your own,
but have them drugged and weakened before you take advantage of them.
Pathetic.” Raven didn’t just poke at the psychopath but beat her with a stick, waiting
for even the slightest mistake, the perfect moment to strike, but the woman
kept herself too close to Taggert for her to take the risk.

Raven debated if she could close
the distance between them before the siren could kill Taggert, but she just
couldn’t risk his life on a gamble.

Veronica hissed in fury, the taunt
pushing her over the edge. “You’ve ruined everything. You took my mate. Now I’m
going to take yours.”

I
nstead of attacking, Veronica opened her mouth
and sang.

The hairs on the back of Raven’s neck stood on end at the
first note. She didn’t understand the words to the hauntingly beautiful song,
but the reaction was immediate.

The fighting stopped.

Not slowly, no winding down.

Just stopped from one second to the next.

The animals from the cage growled, shifting restlessly,
something in the air disturbing them. They looked ready to bolt at the least
provocation.

The boy fell under the spell first, quickly followed by those
nearest the siren.

One by one, the men straightened and shuffled toward
Veronica, their faces enraptured.

Greggory threw the kid over his shoulder and staggered, the
extra weight having nothing to do with it as he struggled to fight the siren’s
pull. He shook his head, stumbling a few steps and their eyes connected.

The flare of panic consuming him faded as he lost his hold
on reality.

He only needed to go a couple more yards to get out of
range. She held her breath with hope, only to have it plummet when he staggered
to a stop. The kid slipped unheeded from his grip to crash to the ground. Her
heart dropped to her knees when he turned and trudged toward the siren like all
the rest.

It chilled Raven to see such a strong man being turned, all
without a fight.

“What’s happening?” When only silence greeted her, Raven
turned toward her men. “Durant?”

“Huh?” He blinked in confusion, but didn’t bother to even
glance at her.

Jackson didn’t even register her question, turning away from
her with all the rest.

Devastation nearly wrenched her heart out of her chest. When
she looked around the only other person who remained unaffected was the gypsy.

Eve glanced at the men as they plodded forward, then inched
her way toward Raven. None of the men even noticed the women, despite even bumping
into them to get to the siren. “Can you sense anything?”

Raven focused on Veronica and dropped into her second sight.

And saw nothing.

She amped up the charge. All the warmth around her bled
away, her breath billowed out in a cloud of white as she pushed herself for
more. There had to be something. She expected bright bursts of magic; instead,
it splashed through the air like fluff from a dandelion.

It drifted across her skin, then crawled over her like a
cluster of spiders, trying to burrow into her flesh as if desperate to get
inside and pull her under its spell. Blood whooshed in her ears. The longer she
stayed in the alternate vision, the more her head pounded, and she finally
blinked it away. “It’s not magic, but it’s close. Can you do anything?”

Eve lifted her arms and began casting, knitting an intricate
spell that Raven had no ability to interpret.

Though Durant had remained by her side, he stared at
Veronica, completely captivated. Something shriveled inside her when he stepped
away from her, drawn to the seductress.

The dragon growled in denial, and Raven grabbed Durant’s
arm.

Current jumped between them, electricity snapping in the air,
and every hair on her arm stood on end. The dull look in his beautiful golden eyes
gradually faded. He shook his head like a dog, not seeming to recognize his
surroundings, completely dazed and uncoordinated as if drugged.

“Durant?”

Alarm spiked through her when Jackson drew farther and farther
away, and she reluctantly loosened her hold on Durant to go after him.

She darted forward, managing only two steps, when a gurgling
protest reached her ears. Her skin crawled at the sound. She whirled to see Durant
sway on his feet, the vacant look falling back over his eyes.

“Run.” His raspy voice sent a chill down her spine.

She was losing him.

The same realization darkened his eyes, and a pit of despair
yawned between them at his utter helplessness. He took one stumbling step
toward her when he completely forgot her existence, and his eyes began to dull
over.

Her soul shattered at the loss. If she did as directed and
left, the circus would vanish in the middle of the night, and she’d never see
any of them again.

She couldn’t do it.

Even if it meant they would kill her.

The animals paced restlessly, unaffected by whatever the
bitch was doing.

Hope surged at the realization, and Raven whirled and
yelled, adding power to her words to make it a command. “Durant, you have to
shift. She can’t control your beast.”

He heard her order and struggled against the pull of the
siren, but it was too little too late. With each heartbeat, he fell further
under her influence.

Then it was too late as he finally lost the battle.

She grabbed for his beast, willing the change on him, but
slammed into some sort of barrier. No matter how much energy she threw at it,
she couldn’t access his tiger, meeting nothing but darkness.

The loss of connection gutted her, leaving her so alone the
dragon lifted its big head and gave a mournful wail. She’d been able to connect
to him by touch, and a fragile hope flared to life. She tried to shove the
shifters out of the way, but it was like pushing at a brick wall. She wedged
herself between two men and squeezed through, only to be confronted by three
more.

“Raven.” Eve grabbed her arm, a combination of fear and pity
etched on her face. “We can’t help them that way. We need a plan.”

“The men are mine.” Veronica stood, her chin high, surveying
the crowd like a queen over her possessions.

Fury rippled through Raven. Claws sliced through the tips of
her fingers, and she welcomed the sting of pain. Energy spilled through her
veins with the need to eliminate the threat. “Over my dead body.”

“That can be arranged.” Veronica laughed, drunk on power. Her
skin tinged green as the siren fully emerged, a mythical creature said to lure
sailors to their death. Two rows of needle-like teeth filled her mouth, while
sharp, dainty talons tipped her fingers. If the siren had been in water, Raven suspected
her power would be twice as strong.

That weakness gave them an opening.

Rebellion must have shone on Raven’s face for Veronica’s
eyes narrowed, then she turned toward the men and pointed. “Kill them.”

Raven automatically fell into a fighting stance and lifted
her sword, then slowly lowered it as the men around them turned toward her.

She couldn’t do it.

She couldn’t kill them, not when they weren’t in control of
themselves.

To her shock, the sword shimmered then vanished as if she’d
banished it by thought alone.

She open and closed her firsts, already missing the blade,
feeling naked without it.

Vulnerable.

“Now would be a good time.” Raven shouted over her shoulder.

Eve threw a spell at Veronica, the power slamming the bitch
back a few feet. Half of the men paused, those the farthest away from her, and
the siren hissed in fury and hummed a haunting melody until the men resumed
their march.

It had worked.

Only for a few seconds but it had worked.

That meant they had a chance.

Excitement shimmered along her spine. “Whatever you did, do
it again.”

Eve nodded, her face pale under the strain, but she didn’t waver
as she began gathering energy again. “Fine, but you need to keep them off me
while I cast.”

Raven nodded, taking a few steps away to give herself room
to maneuver. Raw current churned under her skin, ready to burst free. She’d
love to give Eve a boost, but couldn’t risk contaminating her with the tainted
magic in the process. It would be a death sentence she didn’t deserve, not
after everything that she’d survived.

The storm continued to brew, thunder and lightning cracking
across the sky, seeking release.

Seeking her.

Raven wanted to call down the storm, throw all that lovely
current at Veronica, but she’d never been able to direct the power. It always
had a mind of its own. If she could get close enough, gather the woman in her
arms, she just had to wait for the lightning.

It would come for her.

It always did, begging to be used.

Like an addict, her whole body trembled with the need for a
fix, a small taste of the storm.

Raven concentrated, gathered the current in her palms, the raw
energy scorching her hands as she drew it from her bones. When the first man
came within striking distance, she tossed the little ball of energy she
gathered.

The man froze and twitched as the current electrocuted him.

He dropped to his knees, awareness creeping back into his
eyes as his beast rose to the surface.

Elation spiked in her chest so hard, so fast, she lost her
breath.

She could save her men and bring them back.

Raven panted under the strain, her hands raw and painful as
if she’d lost a few layers of skin despite the armor. She only had so much energy
left before the precision strikes devastated her power supply. She could
possibly take two more men down without drawing the attention of the storm.

Three more men quickly took the place of the one she’d
shocked. Wanting to save the remaining energy to bring back her pack, she
slammed her elbow into the temple of the first one, knocking him to ground.
When the second one reached for her, she was desperate enough to kick him in
the balls and dropped him. She thrust her fist into the throat of the third,
but not before she took glancing blow high in the shoulder.

A streak of pain shot down her arm at the jarring blow.

Exhaustion weighed her down, making her slow.

Making her sloppy.

She wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

When she turned to face the next attack, Raven froze,
nonplussed when she came face to face with the kid.

The hesitation was all the opening he needed.

He lunged toward her.

He nearly reached her before self-preservation kicked into
gear. Not wanting to hurt him with the current, fearing that it could damage
his unawakened beast, she coldcocked him.

To her relief, the kid dropped like a stone and didn’t move.

Raven backed away, stumbling over one of the bodies, barely
catching her balance as she danced away from another man. The strike meant to
rip out her heart cracked a glancing blow to her ribs instead.

Even with the armor in place, every inch of her body ached.
Cuts stung. Abrasions throbbed. The adrenaline began to wear off so that she
felt every scratch, every bruise. There were just too many to fight. They would
eventually wear her down unless she resorted to killing them. “Eve!”

“I’m close.” Her voice broke under the strain, the last word
cracking.

Raven didn’t bother to look behind her as the next man swung
at her, his claws aimed to gouge out her eyes. She grabbed his arm and twisted,
her stomach lurching as bones snapped. “Faster would be better!”

Veronica narrowed her eyes, hatred burning in the blue
depths, and she began to sing again. The song was beautiful, captivating and
within moments, the few men Raven had managed to free gradually fell back under
her spell.

Three more men crowded closer, nobody home behind their eyes.
If they knew what they were doing, they couldn’t stop it. Raven knocked another
one down with another jolt of current. The muscles of her hands twitched with
agony, and Raven reluctantly dropped the energy she held, not sure how much
more damage she could take before she stopped healing.

Despite all the work, it had only bought her a few minutes as
the men slowly lumbered to their feet. The pain had to be unbearable, but not
one even gave a hint of it as they slowly surrounded the two women.

The feel of being hunted closed in on her. A weight pressed
against her chest with the need to stop them.

Kill them.

“Leo.” Fighting the primal urge, Raven turned toward the
lion and saw the large beast perk up. “Gather the rest of the shifters and
create a barrier between us and the men.”

His lips lifted, fangs flashing, telling her what he thought
of that idea, not budging an inch, the stubborn beast.

“I’m not asking you to kill them. Push them out of the way.
Hell, pin them to the ground by sitting on them. I don’t care. We just need to
buy some time. I’d rather not kill them.”

He cocked his head as he debated her request, and Raven
continued to back away from the men, zapping the ones that got too close. Her
mouth went dry with the need to dump all the juice into them until it pulled
out their beasts … even if it would damage them beyond repair. “You trusted me
once, trust me one more time.”

Her desperation must have reached him.

With a roar, the lion loped forward and knocked the man who’d
been reaching for her back to the ground. The other animals joined the fray,
creating a rather fragile shield.

The pressure of being hunted eased for a fraction until she
saw Jackson stalk her just beyond the reach of the animals.

Raven backed up from his predatory expression. “Eve?”

“I need another minute.”

Raven gathered more energy, her body trembling under the
strain not to let it all loose and wallow in it. Each time she drew current,
the wilder the storm grew. It sensed her nearness and gathered strength to
pounce. Wind picked up, tearing at the tents, stripping the trees of leaves. “I
don’t think we have it.”

She needed to shut down soon or the full ferocity of the
storm would tear them apart. The closer the storm, the weaker her shields, and
the more the dragon rose to the surface, lured out by all the lovely current.

The dragon could only take so much, and a deep foreboding
slithered down her spine.

Things were different now that the dragon was awake. The
creature had always been safe and protected.