Electric Storm(116)

“And the police?”

“Have no knowledge of your son or his connection to Sarah’s resurrection. As far as they know, she’s dead.”

“You’ll keep it that way.” It was a command.

“Of course.” She debated whether to say anything about Sarah’s existence and decided against it. Wolves and vampires didn’t mix. He wouldn’t care that his son loved her or died for her. To him, she never existed.

“Thank you for your services. We owe you a debt.” A dial tone rang in her ear.

Raven pulled away the headset and looked at the phone, then slowly lowered it. His gratitude sounded like more trouble than it was worth. Sunrise would be here soon. Her body ached, her head pounded. A couple of hours sleep would do wonders for her body to heal.

The guys would be asleep up stairs. In an odd sort of way, she was glad Durant had stayed. Without Jackson, her room felt empty. If asked, she’d deny it, but she’d grown accustomed to Jackson’s presence. She didn’t think she’d be able to relax until she had him home.

Shadows shrouded the room when she turned off the last light. Half asleep, she slipped out to the hall. Her hand was on the railing when the floorboards groaned.

Her brain snapped to full awareness. Someone else was in the house.

“You stupid bitch. You ruined everything.”





Chapter Thirty-five





Pure dread raked down Raven’s spine. She recognized that smooth, superior voice from the hellish tunnel deep within the bowels of the earth. The analytical observer was gone. There was a wealth of emotion in his voice now.

Grandpa had found her.

She removed her foot from the bottom step, shuffled backwards and turned. Her back brushed lightly against the wall. One second was all it took. Power immediately flared along the wires, dancing behind the sheetrock like it had been waiting for her touch. Her body throbbed at the call, still oversensitive from all the abuse. She refused to absorb any of it for fear that at the first touch, her core would shut down again.

“I thought you and your friend would’ve been long gone by now.” She swallowed with difficulty and took a step closer to him and his silent companion, willing them away from the boys upstairs.

“Not without taking care of a little business first.”

“To kill me.” The floor trembled beneath her. She resisted a shudder as energy forked its way under the floorboards, slowly snaking its way toward her.

“You were never meant to survive. You succeeded because you cheated. The others showed up to rescue you.” Disgust clouded his face, and he spit on the floor.

“You said if I escaped, I was free. You said nothing about rules.”

“I lied.” He raised the gun in his hand. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

Raven raised her hands and twisted sideways to make herself a smaller target. “I don’t understand. You didn’t care about the hunt. It was more of a means to an end. Why make it personal?”

“The boy was my grandson.”

“The pervert?”

He backhanded her, splitting her lip. Blood spilled across her tongue. She used the momentum to twist about, bringing her closer to the door. Then she noticed that the alarm was off.

She froze when she faced him. Those cold eyes latched onto her wound, his breathing erratic. He licked his lips, his tongue flickering like a reptile. His hands curled into fists as if unable to wait for the pleasure of hitting her again. “You created the hunt for him, didn’t you?”

“He had an aptitude for it.”

A sickening thought took root. “He started killing people, and you needed to find a way to protect him, so you orchestrated this whole thing.”

“And why not? There is a whole shifter population that everyone ignores. No one missed them. Hell, they kill their own kind.”

“But you found that you liked the hunt.”

A smile came to his face. “I find there is a certain justice to cleansing the world so others might live without the stink of your kind.” Spittle flew from his lips, his eyes overly bright. He waved to his henchman. “Go upstairs and handle the others.”

“No.” Raven prayed they heard her shout and got the hell out of there.

The man smirked and took the stairs two at a time, pulling a gun out of the waistband of his pants.

Raven halted her retreat, everything in her stilling. The air brushed over her, every inch soaked with power. And she couldn’t access any of it. Without a care for the consequences, she ripped open the vault holding the poisonous golden strands. Energy poured into her body, each pore sucking it in like water to desert sand as fury ripped away every ounce of self-preservation.