Read Online Electric Heat by Stacey Brutger - Free Book Online

no amount of money could cover his pudgy
belly.
    Raven would not be denied and stepped right up in his space.
“Your coven invited me here. I suggest you step aside, or I will go
through you.”
    A malicious sneer twisted his lips, and his chest swelled
further with self-importance. “I’d like to see you try.”
    Raven wanted to roll her eyes. Okay, so maybe she’d taken
the wrong tack with him. Shifters had a simpler system. They loved all that
dominance shit, duking it out to see who would win…if they lived through it. Since
she was on top in the shifter world, she had to prove herself.
    Often.
    And they always accepted the outcome.
    Something told her this man would not take the humiliation
lying down. The shifter at her feet growled, and the man paled. When he fell
back a step, Raven took advantage of the opportunity and shoved forward.
    The shifter whined and pressed closer. When she stepped
toward the door, he snapped at her pant leg and tried to tug her back, as if
trying to steer her away from danger.
    “Durant, stay out here with him and keep him calm if you
can.” He narrowed his eyes on her, then gave a grunt she interpreted as
agreement. His beast rose to the surface in seconds, all ferocious and ready
for trouble. The smell of leather soothed her unease at leaving them
unprotected. The jaguar released her at the show of dominance and hunkered down
with another whine. Those blue eyes of his followed her, but he let her walk
away without another protest.
    The cabin was a little larger than the one they occupied.
Everyone had gathered outside the bedroom, and the smell of magic and dust
suffused the room. It emanated from the body sprawled in the middle of the floor.
She resembled a shriveled old lady, so emaciated her form was barely discernable
under her clothes. She couldn’t weigh more than seventy pounds. Her skin was dry,
cracked like mud baked too long under the pounding sun.
    A laughing picture of her lay smashed on the floor, possibly
shattered in a scuffle. The woman looked no more than thirty in the image and
in the prime of her life. Now she was nothing more than a desiccated corpse.
    Or so Raven believed until she saw the withered fingers twitch.
Revulsion twisted through her to see the poor woman was still alive—trapped
inside a living corpse—struggling to fight the rampaging magic consuming her.
    “She’s alive.” Raven expected them to rush into the room,
but no one moved.
    Then she understood why. Whatever was killing the witch had
stolen the jaguar’s life force through their connection. It was entirely
possible it would be able to pull even more energy through a link between coven
members.
    Wilted fingers moved again, clawing toward the door, and Raven
would swear she was trying to crawl toward the other witches. She didn’t seem
to care that her touch would kill.  
    The witches couldn’t do anything because of the connection between
them, but Raven had no such bindings.
    “Raven.” Durant caught her arm before she could step into
the room. “Don’t.”
    “She’ll die.”
    “She’s already dead.” Raven heard no pity, a mere statement
of fact.
    “Not yet.” She shrugged off his hold and shoved her way into
the room.
    And was stopped by an invisible wall.
    “It’s a ward. Nothing can pass in or out.” Heloise answered Raven’s
unspoken question, and raised her hand to reveal a severe burn that bubbled up
the flesh and covered her whole palm. “We’re trying to take it down, but it
will take time.”
    Time they didn’t have.
    They were left to do nothing but watch while one of their
own was murdered.
    Then another thing struck her. “You let me try to enter the
room without a warning.”
    Heloise shrugged. “You are unharmed.”
    “I told you no more tests.” She twisted her arm where she
smacked into the ward, only to see…nothing. No burn. “So, did I pass or fail?”
    The witch tightened her lips and turned away.
    Passed, then. But was that good or