Electric Heat (10 page)

Bastard.

When Rylan headed toward the door, she leapt the distance
between them. No way could she remain alone in a room with Durant. “Where are
you going?”

Her voice might have squeaked.

Amusement darkened his eyes.

“The bed is yours. Durant will sleep across the floor in
front of the door to dissuade any intruders seeking to cause mischief.”

It wasn’t a suggestion. Durant narrowed his eyes at the
command from a vampire, before finally relenting with a nod.

“What about you?” Concern overrode her nervousness at being
alone with Durant.

“I’m going to roam the campus until sunrise, then go to
ground.”

“To ground?” He couldn’t mean what she thought it meant.

Bury himself alive.

“It’s the safest place.”

She shuddered at the thought of being imprisoned by
thousands of pounds of dirt. “You can stay here. We can’t take the risk of
someone tracking you.”

Rylan’s amusement fell away, and he seemed genuinely baffled
by her concern. “We’ve managed this way for thousands of years. Only you will
know where I rest. The ground won’t even be disturbed.”

Before she could protest more, he vanished into the night,
melting into the darkness from one breath to the next.

Durant reached over her shoulder and firmly shut the door,
his body much too close for her sanity. His heat and leather scent enveloped
her, inviting her to lean back against him. “Ready for bed?”

 Chapter Eight

DAY TWO: TWO
HOURS BEFORE SUNRISE

R
aven
bolted upright from a sound sleep, suddenly wide awake. She absently rubbed a
spot against her chest, uncertain what had disturbed her. The room was silent,
nothing to cause alarm. She ran her hands over the cold sheets. Much to her
surprise, she missed sharing the bed with the pack. The twin mattress felt
lonely and vast, and she was beginning to understand why the pack slept in
piles.

She curbed the impulse to ask Durant to join her. With just
the two of them, it felt too intimate, and she wasn’t ready to go down that
path yet.

She’d expected to spend hours tossing, but Durant’s comforting
presence allowed her to drop right off into a deep sleep.

So what had awakened her?

Durant rose from where he slept on the floor, naked except
for his pants. His golden eyes glowed in the dark as he searched for a threat.
His muscles gleamed in the faint light, his body tense and ready to leap into
action. She clutched the covers to her chest, not because she was worried he
would take advantage of her, more the other way around. The gold in his tattoo
shimmered in the moonlight, but wasn’t aglow. Which meant no magical threat.

“What is it?”

Raven didn’t have a clue. Sleep was almost gone from his
voice, and her body tingled in response to his raspy question. She smoothed a
hand over her hair, managing to resist looking at him directly lest she became
distracted all over again. “It’s nothing. Just a feeling. Go back to bed.”

Instead of obeying, he grabbed a shirt and pulled it over
his head.

“Where are you going?” Not wanting to be left behind, Raven quickly
followed suit. Her hands hesitated over the gloves. Nothing good could come
from being called out into the middle of the night. She needed to be ready. She
gave the gloves one last look, then left them behind.

“Your eyes are glowing.” Without another word, he was out
the door before she could escape the bedroom. By the time she hurried out into
the night air, Durant was using his voice to suggest the guards take a nap.
Something about his eyes and the tone had the power to seduce people into doing
whatever he wanted.

At least this time he didn’t try it on her.

He reached back and grabbed her arm, pulling her in the
opposite direction of the main buildings. In minutes, they were surrounded by
trees.

The darkness was almost absolute.

Or should have been.

The pitch black eased to shades of gray, and shapes became
more defined as her vision automatically adjusted. Another new adaptation thanks
to her creature. Durant dropped her arm and stepped back.

“What are we doing here?”

“Remember the feeling that woke you?”

Raven nodded.

“Follow it.”

Easy for him to say. “How the hell am I supposed to follow a
feeling?”

“Get out of your head.”

“What?” She began to turn to face him when he caught her
shoulders.

“Empty your mind. Allow your animal forward.”

She swallowed an immediate protest. If her condition was
only going to intensify, she needed to listen and learn how to handle it. She
closed her eyes and waited for the creature to rise.

Nothing.

Not even a peep.

“Why isn’t it working?”

Leaves crunched, and she opened her eyes to see Durant crowd
closer. “You need to stop thinking of your creature as a separate being. You
are one and the same. That side of yourself is more wild and instinctual. You
have to cede control.”

That was the last thing she expected him to say…and the last
thing she could allow to happen. “But I thought shifters had to contain their
emotions so as not to go furry and lose themselves in their beasts?”

“What happens when you lock an animal in a cage and ignore
him? Never feed him?”

Raven didn’t answer.

Durant circled, almost stalking her. Something about his
lithe movements, the absolute silence, put her on edge. If she didn’t know
better, she’d swear he was hunting her.

Trying to provoke a response.

When it didn’t work, he halted in front her. “We go feral.
Yes, we practice restraint, but not the way you think. The human and our beasts
are not separate. If you try to keep them apart, you’ll risk losing one or the
other.”

He paused as if trying to find a way to explain it in human
terms she’d understand. “Think of your animal as a sixth sense. The animal is
there to help you. Its purpose, its function is to protect you and further your
survival. Ignore it, and you’ll die.”

“But I’ve seen shifters turn violent and revel in the
cruelty of their beasts.”

“That’s just the point. They’re not balanced. They’ve
embraced their beast, love to stir the animal up and whip it into a frenzy.
Just like humans, there are violent shifters who love the torture. They train
and break their animal to be the same way.” He cupped her face and tipped her
head back. “Trust your animal. It will save your life.”

She didn’t know if it could be so easy. “What happens when
you don’t agree with your animal?”

He appeared genuinely confused.

“My animal claimed the jaguar without thinking twice. I
believe it actually blocked me from knowing what it had planned.”

“There might be two reasons she chose to act. You wanted to
rescue the jaguar. The simplest, most direct method was to offer him a pledge.”

She didn’t like his answer. “So doing my bidding without
care of the consequences.”

“You’ve blocked your animal. She’s probably trying to please
you. Once you have a balance, you’ll have the control you seek.”

Raven wasn’t sure she believed him. “What’s the second
option?”

His face shut down, his mouth hard, his eyes grim, until he
was the imposing man she’d first met. “She’s trying to gather a pack around you
to keep you safe.”

“Putting others in danger for my sake.”

Durant shook his head in frustration. “You don’t get a
choice. You’re an alpha. You’ll naturally want to gather a pack. You’ll want to
protect them. You can survive on your own. Lesser shifters cannot. They need to
have the pack around them or they go feral. They will kill and die to preserve
their pack. You need to stop trying to protect them from you. They don’t want
it.”

He glared down at her, anger vibrating off of him in waves
of frustration. “You’re talking about yourself.”

“Hell, yes. It’s our duty to protect you. It drives our
animals into a rage to see you in danger when we’re unable to do anything. You
have to stop hobbling us.”

“But you don’t know how my power will react—”

Durant tugged on a piece of hair the wind blew toward him
and tucked it behind her ear. “It doesn’t matter. We don’t think your powers
would purposely hurt us. We’re trying to be patient while you figure it out.
Why not give us a break and do it our way for a while, just to see how it
works?”

Raven wanted to deny his plea. They were asking her to risk
their lives on a guess, which wasn’t good enough for her.

He must have seen the refusal on her face, because he heaved
a long-suffering sigh. “Let’s get back to the reason why we’re out here.”

“Why
are
we?” She rubbed her arms to keep warm, a
little miffed to note the drop in temperature didn’t bother him in the
slightest.

“You were being summoned.”

Raven stopped moving. Being summoned could never be a good
thing. “By whom?”

“You must follow the call and find out.”

He was asking her to trust him. Her whole life had been
focused on hiding her gift, never revealing herself to others. Now her pack was
urging her to do the opposite.

She didn’t need to be told that if she didn’t learn to adapt
soon, she’d lose everything…including her pack.

The thought was terrifying enough that she gave a shaky nod,
willing to risk anything for them.

In the past, she would have simply dropped into her core,
the vat of power she kept locked away. The core was now glaringly empty, but
she wondered if the process was the same for shifters. If what Rylan believed
was true, the power and the creature were one and the same. If she wanted her
power back, she needed to accept the connection between her and the creature
and work as one.

The thought petrified her to her bones.

She’d never forgive herself if she hurt those closest to
her. The creature gave a huff, offended at the implication that it was a
mindless beast, and breathing became difficult as they tussled for dominance.
If felt like the beast was sitting on her chest in retaliation, trying to
smother her into taking her words back. It left her with the impression she was
arguing with herself.

Amusement got the better of her.

The pressure in her lungs eased. Feeling foolish, she closed
her eyes and tried to recall what woke her. Much to her surprise, she
experienced a definite tug, urging her deeper into the trees.

They were getting closer, practically on top of the source,
when Raven opened her eyes. And saw nothing but trees. Disappointment pinged
through her. She’d thought she was finally learning something. “I must have
messed up—”

A noise in the distance caught her attention, and Raven
cocked her head, trying to zero in on the source. A snarl echoed through the
treetops, a predator catching scent of its prey, and she had the sinking
feeling it was her. Durant tensed, hissed back and moved to stand in front of
her.

Dread gathered in her gut, and she wondered if the summons
had been a trap to lure her out in the open. Going on instinct, Raven turned
and saw them emerge from the darkness, more of a stir of air than any noise. Two
shadowy shapes sped through the woods, the figures barely touching the ground
as they flowed over the forest floor.

Thirty feet and closing.

“Run.” Durant shoved her from behind to get her moving as he
braced himself to fend off the intruders.

Something was hauntingly familiar about the figure in front,
and she hesitated, grabbing his arm. “Wait.”

Twenty feet.

“Taggert?”

The man in the lead altered course slightly, not changing
speed, still barreling toward them. Within seconds dirt pelted her as he
skidded to a stop. The kid was lean, his chest billowing with each breath, the
thin shirt he wore plastered to him. His shaggy sun-streaked hair was sweaty,
darkening it to a sandy brown.

He looked remarkably well for someone who’d nearly died just
a day ago. The damage inflicted when he’d used his body to protect her should
have killed him, but she’d used her alpha ability and every scrape of power to bring
him back from the brink of death. The torturous process had saved him, but not
without a lot of pain.

What surprised her was he appeared perfectly healthy.

No side effects.

But Raven didn’t get her hopes up yet. She was never that
lucky.

“What are you doing here?” She glanced behind him, expecting
to find trouble on his heels, and spotted nothing but a tawny gold and black wolf
picking his way toward them. The animal was tightly packed with muscles and
easily twice the size of a normal wolf.

“Jackson.”

The two hundred pound wolf melted down into the form of a
man. She heard no muscles popping, no bones snapping. No ripping fur or blood
as his body reformed. His gift allowed him to pack on extra weight and
transform faster than the normal ten minutes. The man slowly stood, his brown
hair in disarray, his chest heaving. There was something too masculine, too
purposeful about him to make him classically handsome, but she was drawn to him
just the same.

She scanned him for possible injuries, blushing at his
nakedness and the fact he made no effort to cover himself. A smattering of hair
arrowed down his chest, and her naked fingers tingled with the urge to touch
what was so blatantly displayed. She had to force her eyes up to meet his gaze
before they wandered any lower. “What’s wrong?”