Raven Investigation 04 - Electric Legend
Page 28
Jackson knelt by her side, and she remembered he had some medical training. He didn’t touch the body, just poked and prodded a bit. Without skin, even the lightest touch of air had to be agony. “If you want him to survive, he’ll need a lot of blood and fast. We’ll need to jumpstart the healing process or the blood will leak out of him as fast as we put it in him.”
“What?” Raven’s head whipped up, and she fell on her backside. “He’s still alive?”
“Vampires are by definition dead. They didn’t remove his head or heart.” His face turned grim. “They wanted you to find him like this.”
Raven swallowed hard at the nasty task before her. “I can cauterize his wounds.”
Her magic would basically burn him alive.
If she messed up, she could literally turn him to ash.
At Jackson’s nod, she pulled all the current toward her and carefully wrapped the strands around the body and cooked him until the skin scabbed over.
The smell of charred flesh stuck in her nose, coated her mouth, and she barely resisted the urge to vomit. Sweat gathered between her shoulder blades, and her whole body protested the prolonged use of magic, but Raven refused to drop her hold, not until he was whole.
Then the corpse moved.
His hand clamped on her arm, blood squished between its fingers and dripped down her arm. Raven sucked in a sharp breath, swallowing her scream, the energy fizzling and soaking harmlessly into the ground with a nasty snap of electricity to her hands that left her whole arms tingling and numb.
“Rylan? Can you hear me? I’m here. You’re going to be okay.”
“They took him.” The words emerged almost unintelligible without lips and his tongue shredded to ribbons.
Everything inside her stilled.
It wasn’t Rylan.
The blood and lack of skin had obscured the scent and all recognizable features.
It took her brain a few seconds to recognize a certain tenor in the voice. “Nicholas?”
Nicholas had gotten on the bad side of his master, and he’d come to her for help. He’d shown her his loyalty by risking his life to help save her pack. In return, Raven had vouched for him, and brought him home with her on the excuse that she needed him to guard Rylan’s back.
It was supposed to keep him safe, not get him killed.
“Who?”
“Humans.” Blood drippled down the side of his face, coughed up from his lungs, revealing one of his fangs was chipped.
No humans could take two vampires without training.
Her whole body chilled as the truth became starkly clear.
The labs had finally produced viable paranormal soldiers and they were coming after her.
Their original soldier.
The world stopped spinning as the dragon roared in fury, ready to hunt and tear the world apart and kill everyone who threatened her pack.
She messed up, got noticed, and they tracked her back here.
She couldn’t help but wonder if the humans were the threat that Greggory sensed.
Most shifters believed they were invincible, the top of the food chain. More than a few shifters would never believe they could be taken down by humans.
They would be very wrong.
She met Jackson’s concerned gaze, her lips numb as she spoke. “The people from the labs found us.”
Durant placed his hand on her shoulder, offering comfort and support. Then his grip tightened, as if he alone could keep her safe within his arms. “And they set the perfect trap to lure you out.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stacey Brutger lives in a small town in Minnesota with her husband and an assortment of animals. When she’s not reading, she enjoys creating stories about exotic worlds and grand adventures…then shoving in her characters to see how they’d survive. She enjoys writing anything paranormal from contemporary to historical.
Other books by this author:
BloodSworn
Coveted
A PeaceKeeper Novel
The Demon Within (Book1)
A Raven Investigations Novel
Electric Storm (Book 1)
Electric Moon (Book 2)
Electric Heat (Book 3)
Electric Legend (Book 4)
Coming Soon:
Druid Surrender
Druid Temptation
Electric Night (Book 4)
Citadel
Watch for her first dystopian novel called Citadel
or her next historical fantasy called Druid Surrender.
Visit Stacey online to find out more at www.StaceyBrutger.com
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