Page 37 of The Raven
He cupped my face, his thumb brushing lightly over mycheek.“I had adream that you were here. When I woke up, you were gone, andsomehow…”he trailed off as if he was trying to find the right words.“I don’t think it was a dream. It was like I was seeing things through your eyes, and I knew I had to come here.”
My brows lifted as I gaped at him, and a strange feeling stirred deep inside me.
Afeelingthat grew more powerful the longer we held each other.
AfeelingI could only describe as our souls entwining and becoming one.
Unable to stop myself, I leaned in and brushed my lips against his, hiswarmthbleeding into me so strongly that I was surprised my bodywasn’tglowing. But as he leaned in to deepen the kiss, animageflashedin my head, and I froze.
“What’s wrong?” Mason asked, pulling away.
The image continued to play, my raven showing me what she was seeing. “We have to go.” I jumped to my feet and headed to the path that would lead out of the cemetery.
“Raven, you need to tell me what’s happening,”Masonsaid, hurrying tokeep up with me.
“Pyro. He’s…he’s about to leave the country.”I metMason’sconfusedgaze.“If he leaves, I’ll never be able to end this.”
The Angel OfDeath
The Cop
“He’s loading his shitinto the car,” Raven said, her tone laced with desperation. I pressed on the gas, swerving at the last minute to overtake a crawling truck.
It was a damn good job that it was the early hours of the morning, and fewcarswere on the road. There was no way I’d have been able to drive like the devil was chasing my ass if it were the middle of the day.
“How does that work? You know, your connection with theraven?”I asked,curiosity getting the better of medespitethe current situation.
Raven pulled her gaze away from where she’d been staring out the windshield, focused on what the bird was showing her.
“I don’t really know. When Oz sent me back, he said she would be myguide,”Ravenrepliedquietly.“I feel her. When she’sworried, I feel it. When she’s warning me, I know… When she’shurt, so am I.”
I looked over at her, her eyes on the arm resting across her body. Nowshe’d mentioned it, I’d noticed she hadn’tusedthat arm when she knocked me out of the way of Grim’s bullets.
“If she getshurt, so do you,”I said, more to myself. She didn’t reply. Mymind churned with what that could mean for her.“Do you thinkGrimknows?”
“I don’t know.”
A heavy silence filled the car, the two of us lost in thought at the repercussions of what would happen if Grim made that discovery.
Turning the corner, the Viper’s warehouse loomedahead. I’dlostcount ofthe number of times I’d visited the place in the past, looking for the smallesthintofevidenceI could take to Brenner to convince him to reopenRaven’scase.
The place was a den of iniquity. Itneededburning to the fucking ground inmy humble opinion.
TensioncrowdedRaven’sbody as she stared at the building, but just as Iopened my mouth to ask her what the plan was, the garage door lifted, andPyro’scar sped out, the man of the hour in the driver’s seat.
Our gazes clashed before he slammed on his brakes, shoved the car intoreverse, and spun around,drivingoff in the other direction.
My heart rate spiked, adrenaline flooding my system as I floored it withoutgiving it a second thought. There was no way on earth he was getting away.
It had been a long time since I’d been involved in a carchase, somethingthat happened a lot when I was a uniformed cop, but less so since becoming a detective.
Not that it mattered, years of training kicked into gear, and I took asteadybreath, telling my heart to calm. The worst thing you could do in achasewas lose your head; that was a surefire way to get yourself killed in a crash.
The same could not be said for Pyro. In his desperation to get away, he almost lost control several times, clipping parked cars and nearly hitting a garbage truck as it stopped to collect the waste.
His recklessness allowed me tocatchup to him, and by the time wehittheroad that would take us out of Hadleigh Peak, we were only a few feet away from his bumper.
But I couldn’t quitecatchup enough to take him out.
