Page 63 of Spooks & Specters

Unable to help himself, Raven scanned those groups, but no. Nothing. No Stu. It bothered him more than he wanted to admit. Where was the human? Was he okay?

It appeared as if people had finally figured out the fire alarms were false and were calming down a little. Raven scanned the groups of people standing around talking, still searching. Now several of them had their cell phones out. Because of course they did.

A decrepit white van stopped a little way down the street from the club and its door slid open. Alarms started going off in Raven’s head immediately. “Shit.”

Suddenly he was afraid he understood what the hunters’ mission had been.

“What?” Felix asked, suddenly appearing.

“Look.” Raven pointed. “White van with the door open.”

“Tell me they aren’t seriously trying to kidnap humans for their experiments right here in front of everyone.”

“They’re trying to kidnap humans for their experiments in front of everyone.”

“Shit, Raven, I said not to tell me that!” Felix complained.

A human male dressed all in black had his arm around a young woman, consoling her as he gently herded her toward the van. In fact, Raven noticed several humans were being led that way.

“Hudson and Connie also seem to have noticed what’s going on too,” Raven said. “Lend them assistance.”

Felix bowed his head slightly. “I will.”

Raven watched Felix speed off as he directed the vampires who were outside to help the humans and other paranormals.

After he had that in hand, he darted around the back of the building because he had a feeling there was more than one van, and sure enough, he was right.

But shock rolled through his body as he saw his human fighting. Shortly after that came a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time—fear. Stu was fighting a partially transformed hunter, and the yellow eyes were a dead giveaway of what DNA had been spliced with the hunter’s—werewolf. Deadly sharp claws slashed at Stu, ripping through his shirt and into his skin.

Blood spurted.

The air current carried the scent of the precious substance to Raven. His monster roared to life as the scent enveloped him. The smell. The taste on his tongue. He’d never smelled anything like that during his long life. It made him need.

Stu lifted his hand, and a glowing whip of electricity snapped from his fingers. It wrapped around the hunter, electrocuting him.

Electrocutinghim.

Raven stumbled back as it dawned on him what his human was. Well, first off, his human was not human. How hadhe missed that? Stu was a Lightningbender, meaning he had the power of electrokinesis.

Those who had such powers were sometimes called Lightning Lords and were considered dangerous. Very dangerous, because they had the ability to control living creatures through the precise manipulation of electricity and electrical fields within a person.

In other words, they could control a person’s movements by manipulating the electricity used by the nervous system to send signals to the entire body.

Lightning Lords were powerful, morally gray, and not well-liked by the paranormal community.

“By the dark gods,” Raven whispered as Stu killed the hunter.

Turning, Stu stared at Raven, then jetted into the air, disappearing.

Raven was sure he’d seen regret in Stu’s eyes, but he didn’t know if it was because Raven knew what he was or because Stu had killed the hunter. And he hadn’t hung around to find out.

Common sense told Raven to avoid Stu like the plague. Wasn’t it fortunate that the plague could not kill Raven? One way or another, he’d be seeing Stu again.

~Special thanks to Ash A. for the name Asher. When I do the vampires of San DeLain, we’ll find out that Stu’s name is actually Asher Stuart lol. Sneaky non-human.

Rubies and Red Roses

Chapter One

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