The Lightning Prophecy (The Lightning Witch Trilogy Book 1) (8 page)

“Hey!” she said as she pushed my head slightly. “God, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” She ran delicate fingers through the fur at the back of my ears. That’s when it hit me. Even as this beast she still lusted after me.

“Okay, enough play time. We have work to do,” Mitch growled.

I guessed he could sense it too. I nodded and walked over to Mitch.

I breathed in the scents, trying to find the metallic scent of blood on the air. Blood, even if it had been spilled days ago, tended to linger in dirt. I smelled squirrels and raccoons, but no blood. I widened my perimeter and then found it. It was about ten yards away from the river in a densely wooded area.

I sat down and barked once. Shortly, Mitch and Delaney came toward me. Delaney walked right up next to me and placed her hand on my head. It was a possessive touch and made me happy, even though it shouldn’t. I ducked my head, breaking the contact, and sniffed around, then began to follow the trail.

“Wait, where is he going?” Delaney exclaimed.

“This is where she was killed. He’s showing us the trail the killer took while dragging the body.”

“Oh, can y’all communicate telepathically?”

Mitch laughed. “No, but I know Reid enough to know what he’s doing and I know body language.”

I sat down and waited for them to catch up. This spot seemed to smell stronger of blood than most. Just before I went on, I saw Mitch put his hand on the small of her back to lead her forward. At that moment I don’t think I had ever wanted to rip someone's throat out more. I met his eyes and he met mine. The contact was enough to have me taking a step forward.

He moved his hand and said in a low tone, “Not now, and I’m sorry.”

Delaney’s eyes flicked from me and then to Mitch. I shook my head and returned to the trail. The trail started out with little brush, then the trees, bushes, and shrubbery began to get thick and difficult to maneuver even in wolf form.

“Ouch! Shit, there are huge thorns everywhere,” I heard Delaney say several paces behind me.

There was no way a wolf could drag a body through here without changing. The brush was too damned thick. About fifteen minutes later we got to the railroad tracks and about a hundred yards from the road the trail stopped. I sat on the spot for a few beats waiting on Mitch and Delaney. I looked at Mitch. He nodded and handed me my clothes in a backpack. I walked over, but when I did I caught the scent of fresh blood. I sniffed the air then looked at Delaney. She was cut somewhere.

I walked over to her and saw a small cut on her inner right arm. I sniffed it when she said, “Oh, oops. Damned thorns...” she trailed off as I licked the wound. The taste of her blood alone showed me I could not trust myself alone with this girl. Her blood tasted like a human’s, but it sizzled with power. I turned toward my things, grasped them in my teeth, and walked off. The wolf was getting the upper hand so I needed to change. Right damn now.

“Okay,” I said, clearing my throat. Clearly, I surprised Delaney because at the sound her shoulders jerked in surprise.

“I swear to God, you have got to stop doing that,” she said a little breathlessly. When her voice sounded like that it made my cock twitch. Okay? brute, calm down.

“Sorry, but having just walked that trail there’s no way a wolf could have drug a body through all of those obstacles and brush. He had to have shifted to do it,” I said with complete confidence. Without opposable thumbs, trying to drag a body through all of this forestry would have been near impossible.

“That was my thought too. There was a 911 caller. The files said a homeless man called and reported a naked man covered in blood. And when they arrived they found the body,” Mitch said.

“Sierra.”

We both turned to Delaney and looked at her.

“What?” Mitch said, breaking the silence.

“Her name was Sierra. Not the body, not the victim, and you will not dehumanize her. Even if she was a witch,” Delaney said calmly, even though it was clear by the flush in her face that she was anything but calm.

Before I could say something, Mitch said, “Delaney, it’s not personal.” As soon as the words left his mouth I wanted to throttle him.

Delaney seemed to vibrate. The scent of ozone grew and I knew in this moment there was danger with her. I didn't know if I should be a bit afraid or, my personal morals be damned, if I should claim her right there on the ground for Mitch and God to see.

“Oh, Mitch. Yes, it’s very personal. This THING came into my life. It killed the closest thing I had to a sister. You can’t get more personal than that. You don’t have to like me, or the fact that I’m here, but, Mitch, I will find a way to get justice for Sierra. You can count on that.” For a second I saw lightning behind Delaney’s eyes, but it was gone so fast I couldn't be sure I saw anything there.

“Delaney, I’m sorry. We will be sure to be a little better about referring to her,” I said, trying to defuse the situation. Not only because she could fry both of us to beef jerky before we could lick our balls, but because she looked as though she were in pain. The thought that she was hurting because of something I did and could have avoided killed me inside. I realized that I would do just about anything to never cause her pain and to always alleviate any ache she felt.
Shit, this female is breaking so many of my rules.

“I’m sorry, Delaney,” Mitch said.

There was a moment of awkward silence and tension.

“There is a homeless camp not far from here. We should go find the guy who called 911,” Delaney replied, breaking the tension.

“There is? Where?” Mitch said.

Hell, I didn’t know about the camp.

“Yeah, it’s just under the Truman overpass. It’s really only something you would know if you were a local. But, it proves that this guy wasn't a local. I mean, if you knew there were a camp of homeless people just on the other side of the tracks, would you kill someone? I mean, they could come up on you at any time. Just like we think happened here.”

I think we both just gaped at her. Lord, this woman just kept surprising me. I glanced over at Mitch and he looked as dumbfounded as I felt.

“What?” she asked, placing her hand on her shapely hips. She then began to tap her right foot at us as if to say,
come on, you stupid men, get with it
. At that moment I felt like a stupid man.

“We guessed he wasn’t local, but you sure put the nail in the coffin,” I said.

“What was the homeless man’s name?” Delaney asked.

“Cowboy Bill,” Mitch stated.

“Who has a name like Cowboy Bill? I bet his real name is Steve.”

I raised my eyebrow at Delaney and said, “Then wouldn’t his name be Cowboy Steve?”

She chuckled and said, “Shut up.”

After four or so hours of looking in the homeless camp for Cowboy Bill, we called it quits and went back to the hotel. However, during our trip to the oh-so-wonderful homeless camp, we did learn a few things about the infamous Cowboy Bill.

Cowboy Bill, or Billy Boy, was not local to Savannah. He came to Savannah in the colder months and left in the summer months. However, he had been doing some odd jobs getting some cash so he had stuck around this summer. According to several of the homeless, Cowboy Bill was a big-time drinker and small-time drug user. Oh, and the small fact that he was crazy. Bill was, as one person said, “A tall-tail tellin’ fool.”

After he stumbled upon the bloody man and body, he became paranoid and withdrew from his friends and associates. No one had seen him all day, but nonetheless, we left our cards to have him call us.
Yeah, like that will ever happen.
We got back to the hotel around 4 P.M.

“Delaney, want to go back out to the homeless camp again tomorrow? Mitch is going to see the … Sierra's body, and see what he can find out there.” Her answers never mattered before, but for some reason they did now.

She smiled brightly and said, “Sure, see you at ten.”

I turned and walked away just so she wouldn't see my smile in return.

REID IN HIS
wolf form was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. His coat was a tawny color with specks of black, the feel of it like silk. He resembled a normal timber wolf, but a hell of a lot bigger. He was only a few inches shorter than me in his wolf form. His eyes were electric green and still sparked with his humanity. And when he licked me, sweet God I about passed out from the speed of my wild heart beat alone.

I glanced at the time on the dash; it read 4:10. Great, that gave me time to get home, shower, and get to Mil’s. I turned the key and heard a big bunch of nothing.
Ugh,
I groaned
. Really? Not this again
. I not so softly banged my head on the steering wheel.
Could this day get any worse?
Well there it was, I thought it so now it’s going to happen. I tried the key again. The car sputtered and died. Well, at least it didn’t explode. That was something positive, wasn’t it?

I heard a brisk knock at my window. I jumped at the noise, then looked up and was met with Reid’s hot caramel glaze. I licked my lips. Oh God, did I really just do that? His eyes dropped to my lips and his eyebrows went up in question. I felt my face began to warm with flush.

I cracked the door and said, “It’s dead. I guess I’ll need to call a friend or a c-”

“Stop, Delaney. I’ll take you home.” Oh, because him and me alone was a great idea. I would just tell him thanks but no thanks.

“Yeah, okay thanks,” I blurted. Apparently, my hormones controlled my mouth.
Damned hormones.

He opened my door, but when I got out he didn’t give me that much space so our bodies brushed, sending a spike of heat to my core.
He cannot be this close to me. My brain gets all fuzzy when he's this close to me.
All I could think about were his hands all over me. His lips and tongue.
Okay, listen, hot sauce, you need to calm down.
I took a deep breath and met that hot caramel gaze again.

“Uh o-okay, let’s go.”

He smiled and said, “Yes, let’s.”

After I sat down in the Jeep, I pulled out my cell and texted my friend Troy. Troy was a friend Sierra and I met one night when we went to Club One, the local gay bar. When we met Troy, he was bartending. He was wearing a long white toga with gold and purple ribbons trailing down his arms and a gold belt cinching his waist, which, by the way, was impossibly tiny. His bust was sloshing out of his top and I always wondered how he managed to get them to look so real! Hell, I had a hard time not staring at them. I swear to God he had to use Jell-O molds to make his boobs look so real because there’s just no way. His long black hair was swept up into a braid that wrapped around his head, looking much like a crown, with gold leaves sticking out of it. Over his left, um, breast? Pec? His nametag read
Helen of Troy
.

The best way to describe Troy would be “a male peacock.” Troy sure did love his feathers. Troy in drag was a better-looking woman than I was. I couldn't help but be a tiny bit jealous of him, with his smooth, light-coffee-colored skin and hazel eyes that definitely made you look twice. From our first meeting at the bar on, Troy had adopted Sierra and me as his sisters. Or, as Troy put it, “Y’all are my sisters from other misters. Well, I guess we could be the same daddy because my daddy was white and from how I hear it, that mother fucker, pun absolutely intended, got around.”

I typed in:

Hey want to go see Mil with me? I need a ride my car died.

Troy:

Again?! Yeah you know I’ll go. My hair is in the bathtub drying. Some hooker tossed a bloody Mary at me. Bitch better not have ruined my new wig. What time?

Me:

6? Get there at 7? She’s cooking!

Troy:

Okay. Glad you told me. I’ll bring my big girl panties.

I shook my head at the screen. If nothing else, Troy was entertaining.

“You ready?” Reid asked.

“Oh yeah, sorry. I was just texting a friend.”

Reid raised his eyebrows at me and I didn’t answer his implied question. He put the car in drive and drove to my apartment.

My apartment was only a few miles from the hotel and I could have run to it, but it was hot. Really damned hot.

“Hey, look, thanks for the ride. I guess I’ll call someone to come tow the car. I will just run to the hotel in the morning.”

“No, I’ll pick you up,” he said as he pulled the Jeep into a parking space at the entrance of the stairs leading up to my apartment.

Okay just get out of the car, go upstairs, and get out of an enclosed space with this male.

“Want to come up for coffee?”
Did I just say that? Did those words just come out of my mouth?
My hormones really were taking over
. Please say no
. Wait, did I really want him to say no? I was so conflicted when it came to this male.

“Sure,” he said, smiling. I think he knew my head and hormones were involved in a civil war.

“I thought we could talk about the case and what we are going to do from here,” I hastily added.

Coffee was my weakness, always had been. I’d drink it 24/7 if I didn’t need to sleep. Right now, my hands were shaking making the stuff. This man had me turning into some twitty little chick, but I would not fall over him like a crazy woman. That’s all there was to it.

I handed him his coffee and sat down next to him. God, just being next to him made heat rush to places I really wished it wouldn’t.

“So, what do we do now? I mean, until we can find Cowboy Bill?”

“Well, Mitch is going to the morgue tomorrow. Delaney, this guy has been very careful. He uses bleach on the bodies and in his tracks so we can’t scent him. And even when there is no bleach I still can’t scent him. I think the best thing we can do is find his motive and try to predict his next move.” Reid looked frustrated; hell, I felt frustrated.

“The Coven has no ideas? I mean, I question why they care again.”

“Well, logically they don’t want the press making a big deal of a bunch of witches dying. Even though a lot of humans fear witches, there are witch sympathizing groups and they could cause the Coven a lot of issues.”

“When have you known the Coven to be logical when there’s no profit in it for them?”

Reid seemed to think about this question. Good, he should be thinking about it because the Coven is a group of corrupt old bastards and bitches. They care about the inner circle of the Coven and everyone else be damned.

“I did ask the Coven why they were involved in this and they said the why of it was just as I told you, but if I’m being honest with you, they do seem to have an endgame that I can’t quite figure out.”

“I think going to the Coven is your next step. Or getting someone who wants to rat on the Coven.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” he said as he reached his impossibly large hand out to my face. I stiffened as he brushed a small strand of hair that worked its way loose from my mess of a bun thing that sat atop my head. His touch made my heart beat so fast I could have been related to a hummingbird. And it made things low in my belly tighten.

He had a wicked smile on his face.

“What?” I said, my voice a little too husky for my taste.

“I need to tell you. I can smell you.”

Oh my god
. I showered and put deodorant on. I was purely mortified. I turned red and I think he saw the pure panic on my face because he moved his hand to the back of my head and chuckled low in his chest.

“No, I mean I can smell you when you're aroused. I can smell when you want me.”

I just stared at him, dumbfounded. I mean, what does one say to that?

“Um okay, I—” I was cut off when he leaned forward and covered my mouth with his.

His mouth was so warm on mine. The kiss was feather light at first, a question he was giving me time to respond to. I leaned closer to him, deepening the kiss. His tongue flicked my bottom lip before he sucked it in his mouth. Heat rushed from the hand tangled in my hair to my core and began to pool. He pushed the kiss even closer to the edge as his tongue began a more sensual assault of my mouth. I pressed myself closer to him, pushing my breasts against his too-warm chest. The warmth of his skin through his shirt and mine left my breasts needing to be touched, and my nipples tingling. I needed him to touch me.

As if he heard my thoughts, he broke our kiss and moved his hands to my ass, lifting me up onto his lap. I opened my legs to straddle him, pressing my core against his hard length. I groaned at the feel of him. Somewhere deep down I knew there was a thought I should be having. It was important, but as soon as I had the thought it was chased away by his hand at the back of my head, grasping my hair and lifting my head back as he began to suck lightly on my throat.

I gasped and dug my nails into his back. He grunted at me and then bit, causing me to squeak in surprise and delight. I felt his other hand snake its way under my shirt. I drew in a quick, much-needed gulp of air as his hands made a trail of heat across my skin. He cupped my left breast and quickly found the nipple through my bra, rolling the pebbled flesh between his finger and thumb. Just like that, all thoughts about anything other than Reid were ejected right out my head.

Suddenly he released me and pushed me back on the couch. I looked up at him, confused. What had happened? He was right there with me, wasn't he?

“Take it off, Delaney, or I’m going to rip it off.” It was a demand, not a polite question. His voice was guttural and raw, laced with need. I took my shirt off and he did the same. God, the sight of him without a shirt on was enough to bring me to climax.

I began to throb in my most sensitive of places. He had my bra off and me pushed back on the couch before I could even react to him moving. He was fast, but this time I didn’t mind a bit. He loomed over me, taking in the sight of my body. It honestly made me feel self-conscious to have a man as beautiful as him looking at me with such fierceness and lust on his face. He licked his lips and lowered himself atop me. His hand cupped my breast and our eyes met for the briefest of moments. His eyes blazed with green and mine, I knew, had lightning in them.

He smiled and dipped his head to my breast, drawing my nipple into his mouth painfully slowly. I felt his right hand slip under my ass and he lifted me even closer to him. He aligned us, pelvis to pelvis, and I groaned as his erection was ground against me, somehow finding my clit though all of our remaining clothes. His thrusts sent electricity through my body. I moaned out loud.

He withdrew my nipple from his mouth and said huskily, “Every time I touch you, your skin gives off a charge, and God it’s the hottest thing I have ever felt. You’re like touching a live wire.”

Before I had time to process anything he said, he lowered his head to my left breast and began to flick my nipple with his tongue. He drew it in his mouth, sucking gently at first, then suddenly he bit down sharply, causing me to cry out in pleasure.

My brain was mush. I slid my right hand down his chest and his breath caught. My fingers came to the waistband of his pants and I slipped my hand in. His eyes met mine as my hand dipped lower and I wrapped my fingers around his oh-so-large erection. Oh my, there was no way he would fit. It was so hot, it felt like lava poured through his veins. His eyes closed as I grasped him and he groaned, pushing his hips more fully into my hand. How was this man going to fit inside me? Just the thought of him inside me set me on fire.

Knock, knock, knock
. The sound was muffled. It sounded like someone was knocking at the damned door.

“Girl, open the fucking door. My wig fell in the bathtub and now it’s clogged. I can’t take a shower in those conditions. I have standards.”

Troy’s voice seemed to reverberate through my tiny apartment. Talk about cold water. For what seemed to be hours we both just lay there staring at each other.

“DE-Lane-E, girl come on, you're leaving me standing out here lookin’ like a hot damn mess. If I miss out on a good man, girl…”

“I’m coming, one second!” I yelled to Troy. God knew he would just keep talking and my neighbors would really get an earful. I moved my hand from Reid’s pants and went to get off of him and find my shirt. As I went to move he grabbed my shoulders and kept an iron grip on them. What was he doing? Troy was all about making a scene. I had to get that queen in the apartment before he had a fit of epic proportions.